(Beyond Pesticides, June 14, 2021) Beyond Pesticides reports regularly on new science showing how pesticides harm human health and ecosystems. This science is not factored into EPA decisions.

Tell EPA that cutting-edge science must be considered.

More than 50 pesticide active ingredients have been identified as endocrine disruptors that mimic the action of a naturally-produced hormone, such as estrogen or testosterone, thereby setting off similar chemical reactions in the body; block hormone receptors in cells, thereby preventing the action of normal hormones; or affect the synthesis, transport, metabolism and excretion of hormones, thus altering the concentrations of natural hormones. Endocrine disruptors have been linked to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, early puberty, infertility and other reproductive disorders, childhood and adult cancers, and other metabolic disorders. Similar effects are found in other species. In spite of legal requirements and the flood of research, EPA issues Proposed Interim Decisions (PIDs) on pesticide registrations making no human health or environmental safety findings associated with the potential for endocrine disruption, or identifying additional data needs to satisfy Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program requirements in the PIDs. EPA cannot make findings of no unreasonable adverse effects without findings concerning endocrine disruption. EPA continues to register pesticides posing unreasonable health effects.

There is much research on the impacts of pesticides on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates and plants, including overwhelming evidence of an on-going insect apocalypse and collapse of bird populations. EPA ignores this science and continues to register pesticides that contribute to the problem. 

EPA ignores science on dangers to pollinators, the human gut microbiome, soil organisms, and effects of breakdown products and combinations of ingredients. This cutting edge science is not  factored into EPA’s static pesticide evaluation program, given its structure. What is needed is a precautionary approach that removes chemicals from the market when science raises reasonable doubts as to their safety. Not to do so is to put economic value to pesticide manufacturers above the health of human beings and the planet.

Tell EPA that cutting-edge science must be considered.

Learn more about science and policy by tuning in to Day 4 of the virtual National Pesticide Forum on June 15. REGISTER NOW. 

EPA Must Consider Cutting Edge Science

Scientific journals report regularly on new science showing how pesticides harm human health and ecosystems. This science is not factored into EPA decisions.

More than 50 pesticide active ingredients have been identified as endocrine disruptors that mimic the action of a naturally-produced hormone, such as estrogen or testosterone, thereby setting off similar chemical reactions in the body; block hormone receptors in cells, thereby preventing the action of normal hormones; or affect the synthesis, transport, metabolism and excretion of hormones, thus altering the concentrations of natural hormones. Endocrine disruptors have been linked to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, early puberty, infertility and other reproductive disorders, childhood and adult cancers, and other metabolic disorders. Similar effects are found in other species. In spite of legal requirements and the flood of research, EPA issues Proposed Interim Decisions (PIDs) on pesticide registrations making no human health or environmental safety findings associated with the potential for endocrine disruption, or identifying additional data needs to satisfy Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program requirements in the PIDs. EPA cannot make findings of no unreasonable adverse effects without findings concerning endocrine disruption. EPA continues to register pesticides posing unreasonable health effects.

There is much research on the impacts of pesticides on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates and plants, including overwhelming evidence of an on-going insect apocalypse and collapse of bird populations. EPA ignores this science and continues to register pesticides that contribute to the problem.

EPA ignores science on dangers to pollinators, the human gut microbiome, soil organisms, and effects of breakdown products and combinations of ingredients. This cutting-edge science cannot be factored into EPA’s static pesticide evaluation program. It requires a precautionary approach that removes chemicals from the market when science raises reasonable doubts as to their safety. Not to do so is to put economic value to pesticide manufacturers above the health of human beings and the planet.

Please revise pesticide registration reviews to incorporate precaution.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 11, 2021) On Sunday, June 13, Switzerland will hold a national vote on two landmark initiatives related to pesticide use (as well as several referenda). The vote on one initiative, dubbed by advocates “For a Switzerland Free of Synthetic Pesticides” (FSFSP), will determine whether or not the country will ban synthetic pesticides. If it does, it will become the first European nation to do so. The other initiative, which aims to eliminate direct subsidies of farmers who use synthetic pesticides or antibiotics for livestock, is focused on improving the quality of Switzerland’s drinking water and food supply. Beyond Pesticides covered the grassroots origin of the Swiss “no synthetic pesticides” initiative in 2018 and sees potential passage of both it and the water quality initiative as a watershed moment in the protection of health and the environment. These measures would go a long way to protecting and improving the health of humans and ecosystems, and the food supply, as well as protecting biodiversity in Switzerland. It could also — as advocates hope — encourage other European countries to follow suit.

This vote has been scheduled, in part, as an outcome of a 2018 petition by the advocacy group, Future3, which collected more than 100,000 signatures for the FSFSP initiative. That qualified it to be considered by the Swiss federal cabinet (the Federal Council), which then gave its recommendation to Parliament to schedule the upcoming vote. The measure would ban all uses of synthetic pesticides by farmers and industry, as well as ban imported foodstuffs produced with synthetic pesticides (so as not to disadvantage Swiss farmers). The initiative provides a 10-year period during which farmers could make the transition off of synthetic pesticides.

The clean water initiative, in addition to proscribing the use of pesticides, and of antibiotics for livestock, would prevent farmers from using imported animal feed (which could easily contain pesticide residues). In addition, it would limit the numbers of cows, pigs, and chickens being raised in the country in order to reduce all the problems associated with their manure, including contaminated drinking water. Pascal Scheiwiller, an endorser of the clean water initiative — which estimates that a million Swiss residents drink contaminated water — commented, “People have been sold a romantic image of farming in Switzerland, which is far removed from reality.”

Some opponents of the initiatives appear to have a different take on the “reality of farming” in the country, calling the initiatives “extreme,” and claiming that they are based on a misunderstanding of the realities of Swiss agriculture, and would cause enormous damage to farmers. The Swiss Farmers Union opposes the measures, saying that many members feel that their way of life is “under siege.” Such identification of pesticide use with a valued “way of life” may reveal, at least in part, a different misunderstanding — of both the toll of pesticide use on health and the environment, and of the potential and benefits of non-chemical agriculture.

Switzerland is home to Syngenta, the largest pesticide manufacturer in the world. The company has opposed and derided these measures since they were brought forward three years ago, warning that passage would reduce agricultural yields by up to 40%. This scare mongering flies in the face of evidence that non-chemical-intensive, organic practices can generate yields on par with, and sometimes greater than, chemical production, and can improve profit margins. A well-kept “secret” about pesticides is that they do not actually work as well as most farmers believe they do. Should the FSFSP initiative pass, the government would likely need to create technical and economic support programs for farmers navigating the transition from intensive pesticide use to effective and practicable non-chemical and organic approaches.

Swiss organic farmer and winemaker Roland Lenz — whose vineyards are surrounded by farmers who oppose these agricultural initiatives — favors them, saying that to continue pesticide use would be “sheer lunacy,” particularly given that there are ready methods of growing successfully without them. He commented, “With a ‘Yes’ vote on both initiatives, we will finally move from the chemical age back to the organic age,” and added that passage of these measures “would allow Switzerland to become a pioneer in organic food as well as an example to the rest of the world.”

Early on in the campaign for the FSFSP initiative, Professor Edward Mitchell of the University of Neuchâtel said, “I am convinced that other countries may follow suit. Switzerland with its direct democracy system is somewhat different from other countries, making such a change perhaps more likely in the short term. This puts us in a privileged position to act proactively rather than in response to government actions, and with this goes a responsibility to do so.”

Reuters reports that the Swiss vote on these agriculture-related measures is expected to be close, following what the outlet calls “an unusually bitter debate over the initiatives. . . . A recent Tamedia [Zurich-based media company] poll showed 48% of voters favoured the drinking water initiative and 49% supported the pesticide ban.”

The use of synthetic pesticides has been a contested issue across many European countries, and the European Union (EU), in recent years. Recent developments have included a 2018 EU ban on outdoor uses of a number of commonly applied neonicotinoid pesticides; the European Parliament’s special PEST Committee’s 2019 recommendation of greatly strengthened pesticide regulation; and the EU 2020 adoption of a new strategy to evaluate synergistic impacts of multiple pesticide exposures. To date, only Bhutan has banned synthetic pesticides altogether and adopted organic farming practices.

Beyond Pesticides has spent decades laying out the risks and impacts of synthetic pesticide use — for human and ecosystem health, for organism health and biodiversity, for climate, for water and air and soil quality, for food system integrity — and the multiple solutions that lie in a wholesale transition to organic agriculture and land management. Many of these topics can be explored on the website through the “Programs” drop-down menu. A consistent focus in Beyond Pesticides coverage of pesticide issues has been impacts on human health; that universe of information can be navigated through the Daily News Blog and the Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database.

An on-the-ground chronicle of the kinds of health impacts that pesticide use can have arrived to us recently from someone who lives in Switzerland. Karen Cortesi contacted Beyond Pesticides earlier this year in search of help for a very challenging experience she and her family are having as a result of a neighbor’s use of pesticides that drift onto her family’s property. Ms. Cortesi provided a detailed accounting of the health impacts experienced by her, her partner Simone Roncoroni, their son, and their rabbit and chickens over the course of the past four years. (Beyond Pesticides is unable to fact check all aspects of Ms. Cortesi’s account, which were communicated to us via email; nevertheless, we present highlights of it because it offers a “real life” look at what havoc pesticide use and misuse can wreak.)

The family lives in Novaggio, near the border with Italy, in an area that is designated as both an agricultural zone and a water protection zone. The parents are both homeopaths, and the family grows and sells, at a small scale, organic eggs, fruits, and vegetables. As Ms. Cortesi recounts, pesticide use in her area is permitted for “professional” use (which we interpret to mean for commercial use by trained applicators). The family’s neighbor has been applying to his property, since April of 2020, pesticides that she says are illegal for private use, and in concentrations from three to 20 times what is legally allowed.

Initially, they did not know what pesticide products he was using; Ms. Cortesi reports that they did once spot an applicator tank hand labeled with “Karate 0.08%.” The active ingredient in this product — Karate with Zeon Technology (“Zeon Technology” meaning that it uses nanoparticles) — made by Syngenta, is lambda-cyhalothrin, which Beyond Pesticides’ database notes is a synthetic pyrethroid that is an endocrine disruptor, a skin and mucosal irritant, and a neurotoxicant; it is also toxic to at least bees and aquatic organisms. For humans exposed, it can have acute oral, dermal, and inhalation toxicity (at high exposure levels, potentially resulting in coma or death from respiratory depression). The label on this product indicates that no one should enter a treated area for 24–48 hours after application.

Once authorities finally visited the neighbor’s property, the products (some names of which are in Italian) discovered included: Karate, Switch (fludioxonil, ciprodinil); Pergado (mandipropamid); Radico (1-naftil-acetico, which we believe is 1-naphthaleneacetic acid); Rame 30 (ossicloruro di rame); Flint (trifloxystrobin, tebuconazole); Tega (trifloxystrobin); Ridomil vino (metalaxyl); Topas vino (penconazole); and Rondo (dithianon, difenoconazole). (Most of these are fungicide compounds.) Ms. Cortesi also reported that the neighbor regularly washed pesticide application equipment in an outdoor sink that discharges directly into a river that contributes to the water supply for the village of Pura.

Ms. Cortesi recounted what family members, and their animals, have experienced since the pesticide use started in 2017:

• My rabbit lost her hair, and her skin was bright red, and as she lives with a male and never gave birth, we think that she has become sterile. 
  • My rooster had a red eye, no voice, and collapsed on the ground for hours. 
  • My hen couldn’t breathe well, and completely stopped laying eggs. 
  • For us [humans], the symptoms grew slowly from burning eyes, throat, and nose, to headaches, collapse*, and great difficulty breathing; then, neurological symptoms, such as tremors, motor weakness, and hallucinations. In April of 2020, we feared we might die because of the extreme respiratory distress. Simone has had testicular pain; recently, after [the neighbor] used some substance again, I had severe organ pain and vomiting. Another time, I had an asthma-like attack, and was on the floor for 30 minutes gasping for breath and coughing, though I have never had any respiratory issues in my life prior to this.

[* By “collapse,” Ms. Cortesi reports that she meant that Mr. Roncoroni first got a “headache, then his eyes rolled backward and he started to have hallucinations and spasms, and couldn’t speak.” Her theory about the neurological symptoms is that because Karate uses nanoparticles, some compound(s) may be crossing the blood–brain barrier.”]

Ms. Cortesi wrote about their utter frustration and cited to Beyond Pesticides their numerous attempts to get authorities to recognize what was happening to them, find out what the neighbor was spraying, and compel him to stop, as well as to get medical help with figuring out what was poisoning them. At most every turn, Ms. Cortesi says, their attempts have been met with anemic action, some level of indifference, and subtle implications that they are somehow “crazy.”

The family does not dare sell its eggs as “organic” after the hens’ exposure to the pesticides. Their health continues to be affected by this neighbor’s pesticide use, so they have decided they must move. Sunday’s vote on whether to ban synthetic pesticides, even if successful, will not be a remedy for this family. Out of their own experience, and with the hope that it might inform people prior to the June 13 vote, the couple has made a video describing what they have endured. Beyond Pesticides hopes that the two pesticide initiatives are approved in the June 13 vote so that, in time, experiences like this will become, at worst, exceedingly rare.

Beyond Pesticides reminds readers that the best ways to avoid harmful pesticides are to purchase organic food, support organic practices in landscapes and agriculture, and help educate local communities about the dangers of pesticides and the potential for organic systems. Please contact us for guidance on how to advocate for a pesticide-free world.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/china/swiss-vote-become-first-european-nation-ban-synthetic-pesticides-2021-06-07/

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 10, 2021) Exposure to toxic chemicals decreases egg count and increases infertility risk among women, according to a study published in Environment International. Since 2014, U.S. fertility rates have been decreasing, with many attributing the decline to older age pregnancies. However, several findings demonstrate that exposure to environmental pollutants, like persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from the industrial and agriculture industry, contributes to a decline in fertility rates. Scientists and health officials already associate exposure to POPs, like pesticides, with adverse impacts on male fertility, including reduced sperm count, quality, and abnormal sperm development. Therefore, it is essential to understand how exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment affects reproductive success, especially among women who can transfer contaminants to the fetus via the umbilical cord. The researchers note that these findings should urge government and health officials to reexamine chemical safety concerning reproductive health, and “strongly encourage [them] to study mechanisms behind POP-associated infertility in women in more detail.”

Researchers examined ovarian egg reserve size in pregnant women directly by examining the density of follicles and immature eggs in ovarian tissue and indirectly via serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). Using AMH serum samples, researchers assessed concentration levels of 31 POPs: nine organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), ten polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), three polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), and nine perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

The study results find women of all reproductive ages with higher levels of POPs in serum samples also have fewer immature eggs remaining in the ovaries. At least 14 mixtures of POPs are present in all women in the study. Mixtures of lipophilic or fat-loving POPs, including PCBs, PBDEs (flame retardants), and p,p’-DDE (DDT breakdown product), significantly reduce ovarian follicle numbers. Additionally, exposure to OCPs, like trans-nonachlor (an ingredient in chlordane) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), also affect healthy ovarian follicle concentrations. Lastly, researchers found that HCB, p,p’-DDE and various OCP mixtures increase infertility risk, including longer time-to-pregnancy (TTP) and earlier reproductive dysfunction.

The 2001 Stockholm Convention treaty bans persistent organic pollutants (POPs), like well-known organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). POPs are primary pollutants of concern (UNEP, 2009), as their persistence and toxicity adversely affect environmental and biological health. These pollutants have a global distribution, with evaporation and precipitation facilitating long-range atmospheric transport, deposition, and bioaccumulation of hazardous chemicals in the environment. The U.S. was a signatory to the treaty, but U.S. Senate never ratified it, relegating U.S. officials to observer status. While various POPs on the Stockholm Convention annex lists (i.e., organochlorine compounds) are no longer manufactured or utilized, many of these chemical compounds remain in soils, water (solid and liquid), and the surrounding air at levels exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. Furthermore, some OCPs like lindane, although banned, remain active as pharmaceutical treatments for lice and scabies. Therefore, individuals can still encounter various POPs at varying concentrations.

The ubiquity of pesticides in the environment and food supply is concerning as current measures safeguarding against pesticide use and exposure do not adequately detect and assess total environmental chemical contaminants. For instance, 90 percent of Americans having at least one pesticide biomarker (includes parent compound and breakdown products) in their body. Additionally, pregnant women already have over 100 chemicals detectable in blood and umbilical cord samples, including banned POPs. However, 89 percent of these chemical contaminants are from unidentified sources, lack adequate information, or were not previously detectable in humans. The presence of pesticides in the body has implications for human health, especially during vulnerable life stages like childhood, puberty, pregnancy, and old age. The scientific literature demonstrates pesticides’ long history of severe adverse human health effects (i.e., endocrine disruption, cancer, reproductive/birth problems, neurotoxicity, loss of biodiversity, etc.) and effects on wildlife and biodiversity. Most concerning is exposure to both POPs and current-use pesticides, as these chemicals display endocrine-disrupting effects. Endocrine disruption can lead to several health problems, including hormone-related cancer development (i.e., thyroid, breast, ovarian, prostate, testicular), reproductive dysfunction, and diabetes/obesity.

This study highlights concerns over prenatal exposure to chemicals from consumer and industrial products and sources. There is a growing consensus that exposure to environmental toxicants before pregnancy can impair fertility, pregnancy, and fetal development. These adverse effects can continue into childhood and adulthood and may have multigenerational consequences. Therefore, researchers stress that future studies must evaluate chemical exposure and fertility among non-pregnant women or women experiencing fertility issues. Although the women in this study are fertile enough to conceive, this may differ for the general population or in regions of high chemical exposure. Moreover, researchers advocate for enhanced chemical residue regulations for contaminated food. Numerous studies, including this one, indicate chemical exposure mainly stems from dietary exposure, like food and drinking water. Considering rates of preterm births, miscarriages/stillbirths, and birth malformations are increasing, it is necessary to assess the impact that chemical exposure has on fertility to safeguard future generations’ health.

Doctors and pediatricians strongly agree that pregnant mothers should avoid pesticide exposure during critical development periods. Wildlife, laboratory, and epidemiologic studies show exposure to low-level environmental contaminants, such as pesticides and other chemicals, subtly undermines the ability to reproduce. Furthermore, studies regarding endocrine disruption reveal mechanisms that show how specific chemical toxicants can alter fertility. Therefore, advocates urge that policies stengthen pesticide regulations and increase research on the long-term impacts of pesticide exposure. Beyond Pesticides tracks the most recent studies related to pesticide exposure through our Pesticide Induced Diseases Database (PIDD). This database supports the clear need for strategic action to shift away from pesticide dependency. For more information on the multiple harms of pesticide exposure, see PIDD pages on Sexual and Reproductive Dysfunction, Birth/Fetal Effects, Endocrine Disruption, Cancer, Body Burdens, and other diseases.

One way to reduce human and environmental contamination from pesticides is to buy, grow, and support organic. Numerous studies find that levels of pesticides in urine significantly drop when switching to an all-organic diet. Furthermore, given the wide availability of non-pesticidal alternative strategies, families, from rural to urban, can apply these methods to promote a safe and healthy environment, especially among chemically vulnerable individuals or those with health conditions. For more information on how organic is the right choice for both consumers and the farmworkers that grow our food, see Beyond Pesticides webpage, Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture.

Collaborate with Beyond Pesticides to educate and build the movement that will bring long-needed protection to humans, animals, and the entire environment by attending the National Pesticide Forum on June 15. Cultivating Healthy Communities brings together expert scientists, farmers, policymakers, and activists to discuss strategies to eliminate harms from toxic chemical use in favor of non-toxic organic solutions. The conference began with a pre-conference on May 24, launched on May 25, and continues every Tuesday until June 15, 2021. Registration is open today and available through the webpage on this link. It starts with us. With registration, you will be able to view talks from the entire conference.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Environment International, The Conversation

(Beyond Pesticides, June 9, 2021) Earlier this week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from approving use of the hazardous insecticide aldicarb on citrus crops in Florida. The decision comes shortly after Nikki Fried, Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, denied a state-level registration for aldicarb, which was cancelled in the United States over a decade ago due to risks to children and water contamination. Health, conservation, and farmworker advocates that brought the suit are praising the court’s decision.

“We applaud this decision by the court whose ruling confirms what we already knew — that there is no place for a toxic pesticide like aldicarb to be used on crops in Florida where our workers and our water would be at grave risk,” said Jeannie Economos, coordinator of the Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project at Farmworker Association of Florida in a press release. “Farmworkers can breathe a bit easier knowing that this neurotoxin will not be used on the citrus crops they harvest. We are grateful to Florida commissioner of agriculture Nikki Fried for refusing to allow this toxin to poison our communities, our food and our environment. This decision sends a message to EPA — protecting people and the environment must be their top priority.”

Shortly before the end of the last administration, former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler provided one last handout to the agrichemical industry by approving aldicarb for use on Florida’s citrus groves. The move came after a meeting between Mr. Wheeler, regional EPA staff, and the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association in October 2020, where the industry group urged EPA to reregister the banned chemical. Although the chemical was approved quickly, advocacy groups responded in kind by placing pressure on EPA, and filing a legal challenge to the decision.

By April, Commissioner Fried had heard from both sides, and the Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services rejected state-level approval of the hazardous insecticide. “While there are promising new horizons for fighting citrus greening, like recent breakthroughs at UF/IFAS on genetic resistance, aldicarb poses an unacceptable risk to human, animal, and environmental health in Florida, is one of the world’s most toxic pesticides, and is banned in more than 100 countries,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. “The registrant’s application does not meet the requirements of state law, and we must therefore deny the registration of aldicarb for use in the State of Florida.”

In rejecting EPA’s approval of aldicarb, the court cited the state’s denial, and found that EPA did not comply with Endangered Species Act requirements prior to registration. “We’re thrilled the court has rejected use of one of the most dangerous pesticides in history on Florida oranges and grapefruit,” said Nathan Donley, PhD, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This important decision is a sharp rebuke of the EPA’s pesticide office, which even under the Biden administration chose to dismiss science and the law to protect profits at the expense of farmworkers, children and endangered species.”

While the Biden administration has made important, hopeful statements about certain pesticides and taken some minor steps towards improving protections, it has continued to defend heinous decisions by the previous administration, like the allowance of aldicarb and reregistration of the bee-toxic insecticide sulfoxaflor, in the courts. It is becoming increasingly evident that it will take persistent public pressure to move the Biden EPA to make decisions that are in the interest of public health and the environment.

Aldicarb should never have been considered for use on citrus crops, and should be completely eliminated from use in the United States and around the world. The chemical is banned in over 100 countries under the international Rotterdam Convention, which the U.S. has signed but not ratified.

Aldicarb is a poster child for why pesticide product stewardship is an oxymoron, say advocates. Its downstream effects result in the poisoning of farmworkers, contamination of drinking water, and residues on food can put children at increased risk of serious health problems. EPA findings at the time of aldicarb’s 2010 cancellation showed that use on citrus crops represented the highest risks to children. Upstream effects of aldicarb are also devastating. It is primary feedstock, methyl isocyanate, is the same chemical that caused the Bhopal, India disaster, one of the worst environmental crimes in history where over 25,000 men, women, and children died or were permanently disabled after a leak occurred at a plant owned by Union Carbide (a company later purchased by DowDuPont/Corteva). Every step of aldicarb’s supply chain leaves a trail of pain and suffering for those involved, while industry executives removed from the day to day of the chemical’s use continue to profit.

Despite the federal court’s decision, it is possible EPA may appeal or take further administrative action in favor of industry, as was done after dicamba’s registration was vacated by the courts. New staff at EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention have acknowledged political interference in that decision and committed to scientific integrity moving forward. Aldicarb should be a simple test for such an approach, advocates note. Join us in telling EPA to reverse its approval of highly toxic aldicarb now.

And for more information on the hazards of pesticides and their alternatives, and to hear from experts working on cutting edge legal, advocacy, and scientific approaches, sign up for Beyond Pesticides first ever virtual National Pesticide Forum. June 15 is the last week of the forum, but signing up will also get you access to the full range of speakers and presentations!

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Center for Biological Diversity

(Beyond Pesticides, June 8, 2021) Biosolid-based fertilizer products like Milorganite, often sold to consumers as “organic,” are contaminated with dangerous PFAS chemicals, according to a study published by Sierra Club and Ecology Center. Biosolids, also known as sewage sludge, have been found in the past to contain residues of hazardous pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and a range of other toxicants. While the latest news may not be surprising for careful shoppers who have long avoided biosolid fertilizers, none of these risks are relayed to consumers on fertilizer packages. With fertilizer regulations failing the American consumer, it becomes more important than ever to seek out certified organic fertilizer products.

Sierra Club and Ecology Center looked at nine fertilizer products, each produced from the sewage sludge of a particular American city. For instance, Milorganite, perhaps the most well-known biosolid sludge fertilizer, is derived from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin sewage treatment system. Other products were derived from locations including Sacramento, CA (Synagro); Tacoma, WA (TAGRO); Madison, GA (Pro Care); Las Vegas, NV (Ecoscraps); Eau Claire, WI (Menards Premium Natural Fertilizer); Jacksonville, FL (Greenedge); North Andover, MA (Earthlife); and Washington, DC (Cured Bloom).

As the report notes, many of these products advertise themselves as “organic,” “natural,” or “eco-friendly.” But with these products, “organic” does not mean the same as certified organic products, which prohibit the use of fertilizers containing biosolids. The source of this discrepancy lies with the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO). Fertilizer labeling is currently enacted on a state-by-state basis, and most states follow AAPFCO’s model language. The group defines organic fertilizer as a material containing carbon and one or more elements other than hydrogen and oxygen essential for plant growth. This definition permits fertilizers to be labeled as “organic” even if they do not comply with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standards to produce organic food.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in charge of regulating sewage sludge, its oversight does not extend beyond pathogens and heavy metals. This leaves a wide range of contaminants that can make their way into lawns and gardens that unsuspecting consumers may think they’ve kept organically managed. As the report finds, PFAS chemicals are a glaring omission by EPA.

PFAS – poly and per fluroalkyl substances – is a moniker representing a wide range of fluorinated synthetic chemicals. These chemicals have been linked to cancer, liver damage, birth and developmental problems, reduced fertility, asthma and a range of increasingly common health conditions. Of utmost concern is that PFAS are considered “forever chemicals,” as there is little indication that these substances break down into a state in the environment in which they do not remain toxicologically active. While there is growing recognition from the Biden Administration that action must be taken on PFAS, the range of new products and places in which the substances are being found highlights the extent of the challenge, and regulators’ collective mistake in allowing these substances to remain on the market in the first place.  

Sierra Club and Ecology Center found PFAS in every biosolid fertilizer tested. In fact, each product was contaminated with 14 to 20 different PFAS chemicals, out of 33 that were tested for (and there are over 4,700 different PFAS that have been manufactured, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)). Results reveal even higher levels of precursor chemicals to PFAS production, and up to 6,000 times greater amounts of unknown fluorinated chemicals in the tested products. The highest amount of PFAS was found in Cured Bloom Soil Conditioner, produced from Washington, DC’s sewage treatment process. The report notes that a school  in the District is using one of the tested biosolid products in its school garden.

While EPA Administrator Michael Regan has begun to look at PFAS in wastewater, and is gathering data from other industries, states are out front in regulating these chemicals. Maine has begun to regulate PFAS contamination in biosolids after discovering PFAS chemicals in its milk supply. Michigan recently crafted regulations around PFAS in biosolids, and Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont are in the process of establishing oversight.

One source of PFAS in wastewater and the environment likely stems from the application of toxic pesticides. Increasing evidence is revealing widespread contamination of pesticide products with PFAS chemicals, after testing was first conducted by researchers at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Consumers wishing to avoid the use of dried sewage sludge on their home yard and garden are encouraged to read the fertilizer label carefully. To assist, Beyond Pesticides created a resource of Fertilizers Compatible with Organic Landscape Management. The resource focuses on companies that produce consumer use fertilizers that bear the certified organic label, which never allows the inclusion of biosolid sewage sludge.

Fight back against sewage sludge on your food and in your agricultural community by urging local leaders to prohibit the use of these products on farm fields. Communities across the U.S. have begun to take on this fight. Advocates in Luther, OK, hope that their victory banning the use of biosolid applications in their small town will translate to bigger changes in more farming communities throughout the country.

Additional information on the dangers of biosolids can be found on the report “Biosolids or Biohazards.” And for more information on the developing story around PFAS contamination in pesticide products, attend Beyond Pesticides National Pesticide Forum Workshop on Cutting-edge Science: Environmental Contaminants, featuring Kyla Bennet, PhD, of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Day 3 (June 8, 2021) of the first ever virtual Forum starts today at 1pm: it’s not too late to register to reserve a spot!

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Sierra Club and Ecology Center Report

(Beyond Pesticides, June 7, 2021) Beyond Pesticides and Friends of the Earth (FOE) collaborated to analyze herbicide products at two of the most popular home and garden retailers, Home Depot and Lowe’s. This new Commercial Herbicide Analysis highlights the adverse health and environmental effects of widely available toxic pesticides while encouraging retailers to expand on—and consumers to use—safer, least/nontoxic pesticide approaches.

Tell Home Depot and Lowe’s to remove toxic herbicides from their shelves and replace them with products that promote least-toxic practices.

According to Akayla Bracey, Beyond Pesticides’ science and regulatory manager and lead researcher on the review, “People generally aren’t aware that the pesticides widely available in garden retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s are a threat to health and the environment, and that there are safer approaches that are available and used in organic land management.” 

When it comes to weeds, gardeners need good tools that enable them to control them with minimal effort and damage to their plants. Although gardeners differ in their preference for style of garden hoe, all must be sharp to operate efficiently, so files for sharpening should be located near the hoes, and customer service representatives should be prepared to demonstrate their use. 

Weed-free and chemical-free organic mulches—such as straw or wood chips—are garden essentials for both weed control and long-term organic fertility. Speaking of fertility, natural fertility builds healthy soil for growing strong plants that resist insect and disease damage, while synthetic fertilizers kill valuable soil organisms. Stores should stock fertility products approved for use in organic production.

Friends of the Earth composed a comprehensive list of products sold by Home Depot and Lowe’s by browsing online and local stores. Furthermore, the organization allowed each retailer to review and edit the list. Beyond Pesticides evaluated active ingredients in all products and performed a toxicity analysis using available epidemiological and laboratory and studies.

The analysis, conducted by Beyond Pesticides, reveals that approximately half of all Home Depot herbicide products (24 of 51) and Lowe’s herbicide products (23 of 40) contain ingredients considered Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HPPs). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) classifies HHPs as “pesticides linked with a high incidence of severe or irreversible adverse effects on human health or the environment.” The following active ingredients pose the most harm to human, animal, and ecosystem health, including cancer, reproductive harm, neurotoxicity, and hormone (endocrine) disruption: glyphosate, 2,4-D, dicamba, mecoprop, and pendimethalin. Of these five chemicals, all but dicamba are classifiable as HHPs. Only 29 percent of Home Depot (15 of 51) and 17 percent of Lowe’s (7 of 40) herbicide products qualify as least-toxic or organic.

View the analysis, and for more information, see Beyond Pesticides Lawns and Landscapes webpage and Products Compatible with Organic Landscape Management.

Tell Home Depot and Lowe’s to remove toxic herbicides from their shelves and replace them with products that promote least-toxic practices. 

P.S. Learn more about encouraging organic land care practices in your community by tuning in to Day 3 of the virtual National Pesticide Forum on June 8. REGISTER NOW. 

Letter to Home Depot and Lowe’s

A recent report by Beyond Pesticides and Friends of the Earth showed that about half (23 of 40) of the herbicide products stocked by your stores contain ingredients considered Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HPPs). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) classifies HHPs as “pesticides linked with a high incidence of severe or irreversible adverse effects on human health or the environment.” The following active ingredients pose the most harm to human, animal, and ecosystem health, including cancer, reproductive harm, neurotoxicity, and hormone (endocrine) disruption: glyphosate, 2,4-D, dicamba, mecoprop, and pendimethalin. Of these five chemicals, all but dicamba are classifiable as HHPs. Only 17 percent of Lowe’s (7 of 40) herbicide products qualify as least-toxic or organic.

Many customers are unaware of what chemicals are in the products they use, let alone their chemical effects. When it comes to weeds, your customers need good tools that enable them to control them with minimal effort and damage to their plants. Although gardeners differ in their preference for style of garden hoe, all must be sharp to operate efficiently, so files for sharpening should be located near the hoes, and customer service representatives should be prepared to demonstrate their use.

Weed-free and chemical-free organic mulches—such as straw or wood chips—are garden essentials for both weed control and long-term organic fertility. Speaking of fertility, natural fertility builds healthy soil for growing strong plants that resist insect and disease damage, while synthetic fertilizers kill valuable soil organisms. Please stock fertility products approved for use in organic production.

Please replace the highly hazardous pesticide products in your stores with products (bp-dc.org/WSHS-brochure) to help customers grow organically—high quality tools, organic materials, and least-toxic pesticides (bp-dc.org/organic-compatible) approved for use in organic production.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 4, 2021) The release of the most recent U.S. Geological Services (USGS) study of pesticide contamination of rivers on the U.S. mainland finds that degradation of those rivers from pesticide pollution continues unabated. USGS scientists looked at data from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) from rivers across the country and offered these top-level conclusions: “(1) pesticides persist in environments beyond the site of application and expected period of use, and (2) the potential toxicity of pesticides to aquatic life is pervasive in surface waters.” Beyond Pesticides maintains that ultimately, water quality and aquatic organisms and their ecosystems will be fully protected from pesticides through a wholesale movement to organic land management practices.

USGS undertakes periodic assessments of the presence and toxicity of pesticides in the country’s surface waters under the agency’s National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Recent news from these studies has not been good. In September 2020, Beyond Pesticides reported on another, related USGS survey, which found that nearly 90% of U.S. rivers and streams are contaminated with mixtures of at least five or more different pesticides. A March 2021 Beyond Pesticides Daily News article noted that USGS research demonstrated that, of 422 water samples taken from streams across the U.S. over a five-year period, 95% showed contamination by at least one pesticide.

As the number of pesticides in waterways increases, it has detrimental impacts on aquatic ecosystem health, especially as some pesticides have synergistic impacts in combination, amplifying negative effects. In addition, many aquatic organisms, such as algae and fish, are threatened even at low levels of pesticide exposure. For details on such impacts, see the “Summary of Findings” in Beyond Pesticides’ paper, Poisoned Waterways. it also writes about the multiple issues related to pesticides and water quality; the under-examined impacts of pesticide breakdown products in waterways; and the serious concerns about pesticides in surface waters used as sources of public drinking water.

The researchers’ goals for this current study were: (1) to offer national and regional estimates of (a) pesticide-use data, (b) detection frequency of 221 pesticide compounds, and (c) potential toxicity of these pesticides to aquatic biota and human health; and (2) to investigate impacts of human activity on surface water quality by examining the relationship between agricultural pesticides use and surface water concentrations. If there were a single, net takeaway from this study, it might be this: detected pesticide levels across all the sampled sites and compounds correlate highly with intensity of pesticide usage in the basin/watershed of the sampled surface river waters. The add-on to that is that the chronic exceedances of benchmark levels (thresholds above which negative outcomes are expected) for particular pesticides, and the extent of pesticide contamination of surface waters, are alarming.

Published in mid-April 2021 in Science of the Total Environment, the study quantified concentrations of 221 compounds — 57 herbicides, 38 insecticides, 11 fungicide parent compounds, and 115 pesticide degradates (breakdown products). Herbicides constitute 88% of the total pesticide use represented in the sampling. The researchers assess potential toxicity of the various compounds by comparing the pesticide concentrations in river (surface water) samples to standard concentrations (benchmarks) considered to affect human health or aquatic organisms negatively.

As the paper notes, “Benchmarks are a critical element of all ecological assessments, and USEPA and USGS have assembled rigorous set of benchmarks for an analysis of pesticide risk to human health and aquatic life. However, the benchmarks based on toxicity tests conducted in the laboratory may not fully reflect the risk to field populations.” For the study’s purposes, a collection site was understood to have a “benchmark exceedance” for a given pesticide within a given water year when the 60-day moving average concentration was greater than the method detection level for that pesticide and greater than the benchmark concentration.

The study sampled water (via 12–24 samples annually) from 74 river sites across the five regions it identified: the Northeast, South, Midwest, West, and Pacific (see map below). (Collection of samples was more frequent from April through September — periods of high pesticide use and runoff.) The study uses this regionalization of data because much pesticide contamination of surface waters happens via agricultural activity, which varies widely across the mainland. Given that, the scientists reasonably expected that differences in crop production would cause variability in pesticide use, detection frequency, and benchmark exceedance patterns. The regionalization of the data enables the scientists to assess whether water quality issues related to pesticides are pervasive or isolated to a particular region.

Most collection sites have drainage areas so large that their water quality reflects mixed sources of pesticides from multiple land-use categories. No one site reflects only an agricultural, or a developed, land use. However, a dominant use category, capturing the prevailing use in each watershed, is defined for each collection site. Thirty-two are deemed agricultural, 13 are urban, and the 27 other sites reflect mixed use.

The researchers also note that the contributions of urban/developed areas to the presence of pesticides in river surface water is tricky to sort out. Although urban landscape pesticide “contributions” are relatively small compared with those from dominantly agricultural areas, the researchers posit that for insecticides, the contributions may be more significant. They write: “Unlike agricultural use, for which we have a reasonable estimate, the amount of a pesticide applied in an urban setting is not possible to estimate, as few records of use in this setting are available. . . . Elevated surface water concentrations, particularly of insecticides like fipronil, diazinon, and carbaryl, have been documented in rivers draining [urban] watersheds.” 

The paper highlights additional findings. At least one pesticide is detected at 71 of the 74 sampling sites; an average of 17 discrete pesticides are found at each site; and 75% of the detected pesticides have not been measured in previous USGS national-scale assessments. Herbicide and fungicide use intensity is significantly higher in the Midwest than in the other regions, and intensity of use is significantly greater in the South, Midwest, and Pacific regions than in the Northeast and West. Although agricultural pesticide use is at least 2.5 times greater in the Midwest than in any other region, and the number of pesticides detected in Midwest samples is 1.5 times greater, potential toxicity results are distributed more evenly across regions.

The highest rate of detection frequencies (DFs) for the most-detected herbicides (atrazine, metolachlor, and 2,4-D) occurs in the South and Midwest, with 2,4-D appearing for the first time in a USGS national-scale assessment. (Several other compounds also appear for the first time in USGS research, underscoring the co-authors’ point that periodic updates to the list of pesticides included in assessments are critical.) DFs for insecticides and fungicides are, across the board, much lower than those for herbicides. Noteworthy is the fact that the insecticides found most frequently in this study’s sampling — acephate, imidacloprid, and carbaryl — are currently banned in Europe.

The study deals with two categories of benchmarks — aquatic life benchmarks (ALBs) and human health benchmarks (HHBs) — though within those exist subset benchmarks (e.g., fish benchmarks or invertebrate benchmarks). At least half of the sample sites within each of the regions have at least one chronic benchmark exceedance, with imidacloprid representing the gravest potential threat to aquatic life: it totals 245 ALB exceedances (out of a maximum of 370) at 60 of the 74 sites. The study data show that imidacloprid, metolachlor, and atrazine clock by far the highest number of benchmark exceedances over the data years.

The researchers write, “These results show that pesticides persist in the environment beyond the site of application and expected period of use. . . . [and] illustrate the value of multi-year, national-scale monitoring of pesticides in surface waters, as we were able to capture this chronic and widespread pesticide threat through a range of concentrations from multiple sites and years.”

Between 80% and 100% of sampling sites in the Northeast, Midwest, and South have at least one site with a pesticide exceeding a chronic invertebrate benchmark; for the West and Pacific regions, that metric is lower (50% and 67%, respectively). Researchers found two herbicides, atrazine and metolachlor, present in concentrations high enough to exceed chronic fish benchmarks; metolachlor also exceeds chronic benchmarks for invertebrates. Herbicides with plentiful (12 to 33) benchmark exceedances, including acetochlor, atrazine, and metolachlor, are heavily used and consistently detected at elevated concentrations. These herbicides also exceed benchmarks across a range of taxa, including plants, fish, and invertebrates.

The co-authors write: “The high number of chronic benchmark exceedances indicated that the threat of pesticides to aquatic life across the [mainland U.S.] can be persistent. Even with limited sampling, our benchmark exceedance analysis indicated that transient high pesticide concentrations can result in the exposure of aquatic organisms to acutely toxic conditions across all regions of the [conterminous U.S.].”

These documented threats to aquatic organisms and ecosystems, and to human health — particularly given the persistence of pesticide compounds in surface waters — should be of concern to all. Transitioning to organic land management practices, especially in agriculture, but in all turf and landscape management, is the path toward a nontoxic future and healthy, optimally functioning ecosystems of all kinds.

Read our factsheet, Organic Land Management and the Protection of Water Quality, or download the shorter brochure version for more on how organic practices can protect water quality. To learn more about pesticides and water quality, see the Beyond Pesticides website page, Threatened Waters: Turning the Tide on Pesticide Contamination. For closer-to-home concerns, see Pesticides in My Drinking Water? Individual Precautionary Measures and Community Action.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721022178

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 3, 2021) A report published in Royal Society Open Science finds pesticide-resistant parasitic lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) are endangering wild and farmed fish populations in the North Atlantic. Extensive use of pesticides to rid the parasite has led to widespread resistance to multiple pesticides, prompting increasing infection rates among North Atlantic salmon populations. Overexploitation of wild fish and other ocean organisms has depleted seafood stocks globally. Some fisheries market aquaculture practices, like fish/seafood farming, as a solution to overfishing. However, the aquaculture industry repeatedly faces sustainability issues and fails to adhere to environmental regulations that threaten marine health.

The oceans are essential to human health and well-being, feeding billions, supporting millions of jobs, and supplying medicinal materials. However, environmental contaminants like pesticides have profound impact on the ecosystem and the inhabitants. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how pesticides can influence resistance among lethal pest populations, especially in ecologically vulnerable and highly interconnected ecosystems like ocean basins. The authors of the report caution, “These results demonstrate the speed to which this parasite can develop widespread multi-resistance, illustrating why the aquaculture industry has repeatedly lost the arms race with this highly problematic parasite.”

Over the past two decades, organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides have been the two main chemical classes used to control parasitic salmon lice. However, laboratory studies find increasing resistance among salmon lice to these chemicals, in addition to multi-resistance after in vitro crossbreeding. Since laboratory studies identify that multi-resistance to both chemical classes can occur via crossbreeding, researchers suggest this same resistance transpires in the field. Therefore, this study aims to address multi-resistance in salmon lice populations resulting from reduced sensitivity to multiple chemical compounds in the North Atlantic region.

From 2000 to 2017, researchers sampled 1,988 lice from North-Eastern wild Atlantic salmonid (salmon, sea trout, and farmed salmon) populations. Researchers analyzed parasites for genetic markers for both pyrethroid and organophosphate resistance.

The study results find genetic resistance among salmon lice has a spatiotemporal (location and time) evolutionary pattern. This pattern means that lice demonstrate simultaneous resistance to organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides across the entire North Atlantic, except Canada. Over 50 percent of lice populations around fish-farming operations are resistant to both insecticide classes. Some sample areas contain lice populations that are all resistant to at least one pesticide. Researchers infer aquaculture intensive regions, using an extensive amount of chemicals for delousing, leads to pesticide multi-resistance among salmon lice populations.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines aquaculture as any “farming of aquatic organisms, including baitfish, crustaceans, food fish, mollusks, ornamental fish, sport or game fish, and other aquaculture products.” Farmed fish, like Atlantic salmon, in this case, use one of the most high-risk aquaculture practices, open-net pens in coastal and offshore regions. These pens allow easy exchange of waste (i.e., feces), chemicals (i.e., pesticides and pharmaceuticals), parasites/diseases (i.e., sea lice) between farm and surrounding ocean environment. The discharge of waste, chemicals, and parasites/diseases can have a disastrous impact on marine organisms and plants, disrupting ecosystem services. Many of these pens are in relatively remote areas, somewhat “hidden” from public scrutiny. However, these fish live in very crowded conditions, unlike wild-caught fish. The fish consume food that may contain various pharmaceuticals or insecticides to control diseases and pest infestations that frequently occur in these conditions. Furthermore, the farm pens can attract predators, such as marine mammals, that can tangle and drown in fish farm nets.

This study is one of the first to demonstrate spatiotemporal resistance to multiple chemical pesticides among salmon lice under real-world conditions. According to the results, specific sampling years in combination with geography highlight how resistance spreads. Under normal conditions, lice populations decline in the winter with a shift in salmonid population dispersal. However, the crammed, over-treated nature of farm fishing creates an environment for these parasites to persist through regular winter die-offs. Resistant lice appear in farm pens a few years post-treatment and leak via current through the barrier, due to their small size. All oceans connect to one another, cycling nutrients, chemicals, and organisms throughout the world. Hence, pesticide-resistant lice can potentially spread their resistance gene across the entire ocean basin. These mutant parasites have already made their way from Scandinavia to Greenland and Iceland, where farmers never used chemical pesticides.

There are similar reports about the adverse effects of farmed fish on Scotland’s west coast and Northern Isles. The use of antibiotics and pesticides on local marine ecosystems (i.e., insecticides to control sea lice in farmed salmon) results in coastal habitat loss and genetic and health risks to wild marine populations. Marine species biodiversity is already rapidly declining due to overfishing, global warming, pathogens, and pollution. This biodiversity loss may result in changes in marine and terrestrial ecosystem function and reduce ecosystem services.

Salmon lice are the greatest challenge to aquaculture production and environmentally sustainable aquaculture. These parasites attach to the fish’s skin and feed on their blood and mucus, creating sores that lead to infection or death. Thus, investigating the ubiquity and distribution of pesticide multi-resistance among sea lice populations in the North Atlantic is critical. Pesticides are pervasive in all water ecosystems—from rivers, lakes, and oceans to glaciers in the Arctic. Therefore, it is essential to understand how parasites may develop resistance to pesticides used to control populations to safeguard human, animal, and environmental health.

Advocates say that the federal government should require safeguards in aquaculture industry practices to avoid harmful impacts on wild marine organisms, water resources, and aquatic habitats. A sustainable aquaculture industry, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, would require robust and timely production data, prohibit the discharge of wastes over certain environmentally determined levels, and specify appropriate siting locations for such operations. Instead, federal policy has opted, as the Center for American Progress says, to “focus on weakening successful fisheries management measures and selling off federal waters to big corporations with few safeguards.”

Regulation and elimination of pesticides, not only in aquaculture but in agriculture and other areas of use, can reduce the propagation of harmful effects on the wildlife, ecosystem, and health. Furthermore, melting glaciers associated with the climate crisis elevates new concern over the high levels of chemical concentrations in the oceans from pesticides trapped in ice. Toxic pesticide use must end to protect the nation’s and world’s waterways and reduce the number of pesticides and resistant parasites found in our food, water, and wildlife resources. Learn more about pesticide’s hazards to wildlife and what you can do through Beyond Pesticides’ wildlife program page.

There are many resources individuals can use to help gain knowledge and apply practices to avoid pesticide use and its adverse effects. These include news stories, local organizations, school pesticide policies, regulatory contacts, and least-toxic pest control operators. Organic practices can successfully eliminate toxic pesticide use. Replacing pesticides with organic, nontoxic alternatives is crucial for safeguarding public health and ecosystems from pesticide toxicity. Buying, growing, and supporting organic can help eliminate the extensive use of pesticides in the environment and from your diet. For more information on why organic is the right choice for both consumers and the farmworkers who grow our food, see Beyond Pesticides webpage, Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture. 

Help Beyond Pesticides educate and build the movement that will bring long-needed protection to humans, animals, and the entire environment by attending the National Pesticide Forum on June 8 and 15. Cultivating Healthy Communities brings together expert scientists, farmers, policymakers, and activists to discuss strategies to eliminate harms from toxic chemical use in favor of nontoxic organic solutions. The conference began with a pre-conference on May 24, launched on May 25, and continues every Tuesday until June 15, 2021. Registration is open today and available through the webpage on this link. It starts with us. Upon registration, you will be able to view talks from the entire conference.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Royal Society Open Science, New Scientist

(Beyond Pesticides, June 2, 2021) U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria last week rejected a proposal from multinational agrichemical company Bayer (Monsanto) to settle future court claims around the company’s flagship Roundup/glyphosate herbicide. In making his decision, Judge Chhabria asserted that the corporation’s proposal was inadequate for future victims diagnosed with cancer after using the herbicide. The decision has Bayer scrambling for a way out, and it indicated in a “Five Point Plan” released after the ruling that it will, “discuss the future of glyphosate-based products in the U.S. residential market.”

Bayer’s rejected proposal would have established a $2 billion fund, split between future claimants (who would receive between $5,000 and $200,000), and the cost to cover cancer monitoring, lawyers’ fees, and an advisory panel to review claims. Bayer has agreed to a separate $9.6 billion agreement to settle existing lawsuits, having lost several rounds of litigation where juries found in favor of plaintiffs who claimed that their use of Roundup resulted in their development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Recently, in mid-May, Bayer lost an appeal of the Hardeman vs. Monsanto case, as a three judge panel upheld a $25 million award.

Prior to rejecting the proposal on future claimants, the judge questioned why Monsanto (which Bayer purchased for $63 billion in 2018) never added a warning label to its Roundup products. “For years I’ve been wondering why Monsanto wouldn’t do that voluntarily to protect itself,” said Judge Chhabria of the label, according to Reuters. The judge was particularly concerned about individuals who are currently healthy, but likely to be diagnosed with cancer after using Roundup in the future. He noted that current healthy users may not adequately review or understand the proposal provided to them. Judge Chhabria expressed concern that Bayer could bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and receive a favorable ruling that the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the nation’s pesticide law, prohibits lawsuits claiming a corporation did not adequately warn consumers about health dangers.  

Ultimately, Judge Chhabria determined that Bayer’s proposal had “glaring flaws” that would not benefit future victims. “If a settlement that reasonably protects the interests of Roundup users who have not been diagnosed with NHL (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) can be reached, that agreement must be presented on a new motion for preliminary approval,” said Judge Chhabria, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. “The attorneys pushing this deal repeatedly intone that it will be difficult for Roundup users who are diagnosed with NHL in the future to get a trial, given the limited capacity of courts and given that many plaintiffs will be ‘in line’ ahead of them,” he continued.

Bayer’s response and five point plan indicates the company will create a new website on safety issues associated with Roundup that is likely to be, for all intents and purposes, corporate propaganda. It will ask EPA to approve a corresponding label that links to this website. The company will also establish an “independent” science advisory panel that is part of Bayer’s attempt to “explore alternative solutions aimed at addressing potential future Roundup claims.” Those on the panel will also publish information to Bayer’s new website, the company says, but advocates question as being biased information.

The company will also “regularly reassess” whether its current approach to settling claims is able to “serve the company’s best interest.” Bayer indicates it has addressed nearly 96,000 total claims to date, out of 125,000 existing. And as Judge Chhabria alluded to, Bayer is banking on the Supreme court to “significantly reduce future liability risk” as it expects a favorable decision from the court in 2022 that would preempt state-based failure to warn claims that the company alleges are in conflict with federal law.

However, the largest potential change announced from company headquarters concerns consumer use Roundup products. After noting that it will not affect “professional or agricultural users,” the company appears to be reconsidering sales to residential landscape users of Roundup, “as the overwhelming majority of claimants in the Roundup™ litigation allege that they used Roundup™ Lawn and Garden products,” the company wrote.

Eliminating Roundup from store shelves is a move that regulators at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should have taken long ago, according to advocates. It is unacceptable for regulators to sit by while tens of thousands of Americans develop cancer, and then leave the problem for the courts to work out, says advocates.

Evidence is mounting that cancer is not the only concern when it comes to glyphosate exposure. A growing body of research finds that urinary concentrations of glyphosate in pregnant mothers corresponds with adverse birth outcomes. Mothers with higher rates of glyphosate in their urine later in their pregnancy were more likely to experience preterm birth. And with this effect, glyphosate exposure beyond residential use is implicated, as one of the primary routes for pesticides in one’s urine is through food.

While Bayer hopes for a Hail Mary from the U.S. Supreme Court to cover its ill-fated gamble on Monsanto’s hazardous herbicide, local advocates are encouraged to continue the fight in their communities, in the marketplace, and with their elected officials. Work to eliminate pesticide use where you live, but don’t stop at Roundup- more toxic products are waiting in the wing to replace it if there isn’t an organic land care plan in place to stop toxic pesticide use all together. For more information on the benefits of alternative land care and how you can enact change in your community, see Beyond Pesticides Non-toxic Lawns and Landscapes Tools for Change webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Reuters, Bayer press release, Progressive Farmer DTN

(Beyond Pesticides, June 1, 2021) Farmworkers are at greatest risk from pesticides. EPA’s policies toward farmworkers comprise a blatant example of systemic racism. Although everyone suffers from pesticide poisoning, farmworkers and their families shoulder a disproportionate burden of the hazards. 

Agricultural justice demands that we ensure a workplace with fair wages and benefits, no discrimination or coercion, and protection from hazards, such as harmful chemicals, including pesticides. Acknowledging, respecting, and sustaining the workers who plant, cultivate, and harvest our food is central to the basic values and principles that advance sustainable practices.

Agricultural justice demands that we ensure a workplace with fair wages and benefits, no discrimination or coercion, and protection from hazards, such as harmful chemicals, including pesticides. Acknowledging, respecting, and sustaining the workers who plant, cultivate, and harvest our food is central to the basic values and principles that advance sustainable practices.

Tell EPA to protect farmworkers from pesticides.

Worker Protection Standards Are Inadequate to Protect Farmworkers
Worker protection standards are set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The original standard was developed after field hearings in which EPA heard from growers, but not farmworkers. With the threat of litigation from the National Association of Farmworker Organizations and Migrant Legal Action Program looming in the late 1970s, the Carter Administration funded an effort, conducted by Beyond Pesticides’ executive director, to reach out to workers and collect data on their experiences with pesticide exposure and poisoning in the fields.

Through a series of field hearings in collaboration with the nongovernmental organization Rural America, and EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, federal and state agencies heard directly from farmworkers. Although EPA concluded in 1983 that the regulations were inadequate to protect agricultural workers, it took until 1992 to update the Agricultural Worker Protection Standards (WPS).

Those 1992 updates to the WPS were intended to eliminate or reduce exposure to pesticides, mitigate exposures that occur, and inform employees about the hazards of pesticides. Despite these intentions, the updated WPS still did not adequately protect farmworkers. These standards have been notoriously difficult to enforce and require no record keeping documenting whether the rules have been implemented and only minimal training—all of which can threaten farmworkers and their families.

On September 28, 2015, EPA finally released its new regulation regarding farmworker pesticide safety, revising the WPS, which had not been updated for more than 20 years. These revisions attempt to strengthen the standards through increased training 

for workers who handle pesticides, improved notification of pesticide applications, and a first-time minimum age requirement for children to work around pesticides. However, the Trump Administration weakened these standards, including reducing protection offered by Application Exclusion Zones (buffer zones).

Systemic Racism is Embodied in EPA’s Risk Assessments
Exposure assessments inevitably discount the impact workers, people of color, and those with preexisting health conditions or comorbidities. For example, EPA routinely calculates worker exposure separately from other exposures. In applying aggregate exposure assessments of pesticides, EPA does not include worker exposure. Risk assessments do not include exposures to multiple chemicals—and such exposures that routinely occur to fenceline communities, farmworkers, and factory workers.

In the past, EPA has admitted that even with maximum feasible personal protective equipment (PPE) and engineering controls, including all provisions required by the WPS, risks to workers still exceed EPA’s levels of concern. A 2008 study analyzing poisonings of pesticid

e workers between 1998 and 2005 concluded that in 30% of the cases of high levels of pesticide exposure, all labeling requirements, including those involving re-entry and PPE, had been followed — clearly demonstrating that the WPS and/or labeling requirements are inadequate.

Farm work is demanding and dangerous physical labor. As the scientific literature confirms, farmworkers, their families, and their communities face extraordinary risks from pesticide exposures. Pesticide application and drift result in dermal, inhalation, and oral exposures that are typically underestimated. A 2004 study detected agricultural pesticides in homes near to agricultural fields. According to a 2010 study, workers experience repeated exposures to the same pesticides, evidenced by multiple pesticides routinely detected in their bodies. As a result of cumulative long-term exposures, farmworkers and their children, who often also work on the farms, are at risk of developing serious chronic health problems such as cancer, neurological impairments, and Parkinson’s disease. Children, according to an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report (2012), face even greater health risks compared to adults when exposed to pesticides. For more information, read our factsheet, Children and Pesticides Don’t Mix.

What We Can Do
Our food choices have a direct effect on those who, around the world, grow and harvest what we eat. This is why food labeled organic is the right choice. In addition to serious health questions linked to actual residues of toxic pesticides on the food we eat, our food buying decisions support or reject hazardous agricultural practices and the protection of farmworkers and farm families. See Beyond Pesticides’ guide to Eating with a Conscience to see how your food choices can protect farmworkers. In addition to choosing organic, it is important to consider food labels that create standards for farmworker safety and fairness. See below for more information and resources on how to uphold strong agricultural justice standards.

Tell EPA that we need strong Worker Protection Standards, and more fundamentally, EPA must base its pesticide risk assessments on the dangers to the most vulnerable people—farmworkers and their families. EPA must reverse its policy and require that risk assessments adopt a standard that protects farmworkers.

Beyond Pesticides is holding a virtual National Pesticide Forum, in which we address these issues. 

Tell EPA to protect farmworkers from pesticides.

On Tuesday, June 1, our virtual Forum will address these issues in two sessions with farmworker community representatives address these issues in two sessions with farmworker community representatives. The Forum runs half days for the next three Tuesdays. Schedule won’t work for you? No worries, sessions will be available on demand for your viewing convenience. Register now. 

Letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Farmworkers are at greatest risk from pesticides. EPA’s policies toward farmworkers comprise a blatant example of systemic racism. Although  suffer from pesticide poisoning, farmworkers and their families shoulder a disproportionate burden of the hazards.

Agricultural justice must ensure a workplace with fair wages and benefits, no discrimination or coercion, and protection from hazards, such as harmful chemicals, including pesticides. Acknowledging, respecting, and sustaining the workers who plant, cultivate, and harvest our food is central to the basic values and principles that advance sustainable practices.

Worker protection standards (WPS) are set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The various iterations of the WPS have failed to adequately protect farmworkers. These standards have been notoriously difficult to enforce, and require no record keeping documenting whether the rules have been implemented and only minimal training—all of which can threaten farmworkers and their families. On September 28, 2015, EPA finally released its new regulation regarding farmworker pesticide safety, revising the WPS. These revisions attempt to strengthen the standards through increased training for workers who handle pesticides, improved notification of pesticide applications, and a first-time minimum age requirement for children to work around pesticides. However, the Trump Administration weakened these standards, including reducing protection offered by Application Exclusion Zones (buffer zones).

Systemic racism is embodied in EPA’s risk assessments. Exposure assessments inevitably discount the impact workers, people of color, and those with preexisting health conditions or comorbidities. For example, EPA routinely calculates worker exposure separately from other exposures. EPA has admitted that even with maximum feasible personal protective equipment (PPE) and engineering controls, including all provisions required by the WPS, risks to workers still exceed EPA’s levels of concern. In applying aggregate exposure assessments of pesticides, EPA does not include worker exposure. Risk assessments do not include exposures to multiple chemicals—and such exposures routinely occur to fenceline communities, farmworkers, and factory workers.

Please implement strong Worker Protection Standards and reverse the weakening changes of the Trump administration. More fundamentally, EPA must base its pesticide risk assessments on the dangers to the most vulnerable people—farmworkers and their families. EPA must reverse its policy and require that risk assessments adopt a standard that protects farmworkers.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 28, 2021) A report by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concludes that scientific analyses by the agency were altered so as to favor top Trump administration officials’ policy choices in the 2018 reapproval of the highly toxic and problematic pesticide, dicamba. The report, “EPA Deviated from its Typical Procedures in Its 2018 Dicamba Pesticide Registration Decision,” was publicly released on May 24. It confirms aspects of what Beyond Pesticides and many others in the science, advocacy, public health, and environmental communities have been saying and reporting since 2016: the Trump administration executed a wholesale assault on scientific integrity in federal decision making.

In its research on the matter, the Inspector General’s office (OIG) reviewed EPA’s 2016 and 2018 decisions on dicamba’s registration, documentation that purported to support those decisions, and the concerns forwarded in the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and by many stakeholders. (See more in figure below.) It also reviewed EPA internal procedures and guidance on pesticide registration, and agency scientific integrity materials; interviewed career scientists and other agency staff; and communicated with EPA’s Scientific Integrity (Science Advisor) program staff.

As reported by The Hill, interviews and emails with multiple agency scientists and staff members reveal a host of concerning behaviors. One is that after a senior management review of the 2018 re-approval of dicamba (for use on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans), the assistant administrator’s office instructed scientists to use an outline it provided to them for rewriting an impact analysis document, including removal of several sections of the original document. One scientist asserted that senior management in OCSPP (EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention) told them to use industry-provided data — rather than EPA’s own data — for reported damage from dicamba. Yet another was a staff scientist’s claim that senior management and policymakers instructed that plant height (rather than the academic standard of “visual signs of plant injury”) should be used to measure dicamba’s effects. The OIG report concluded that such behaviors ultimately changed the scientific conclusions about dicamba’s use.

The OIG report concluded: “We found that the EPA’s 2018 dicamba pesticide conditional registration decision varied from the OPP’s [Office of Pesticide Program’s] written standard operating procedures, namely because EPA did not conduct the required internal peer review of scientific documents created to support the dicamba decision. . . . Senior leaders in OCSPP’s immediate office — specifically the former deputy assistant administrator, former deputy assistant administrator for Law and Policy, and former acting principal deputy assistant administrator (hereafter referred to as “senior management”) — were more involved in the dicamba decision than in other pesticide registration decisions. This led to senior-level changes to or omissions from scientific documents, including omissions of some conclusions addressing stakeholder risks” [emphasis by Beyond Pesticides]. The individuals in those specific EPA positions cited in the report included, respectively: Nancy Beck (former deputy assistant administrator, who previously served as a senior director at the American Chemistry Council—the trade organization for the chemical industry), Erik Baptist (former deputy assistant administrator for Law and Policy), and Charlotte Bertrand (former acting principal deputy assistant administrator).

The report continues: “In separate interviews, scientists from the OPP’s Registration Division, EFED [Environmental Fate and Effects Division], and BEAD [Biological and Economic Analysis Division] all described feeling constrained or muted in sharing their scientific integrity concerns with senior management during the dicamba registration process. The EPA’s actions on the dicamba registration left the decision legally vulnerable, resulting in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacating the three 2018 registrations for violating FIFRA by substantially understating some risks and failing to acknowledge others entirely.” (FIFRA is the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the governing framework for registration and labeling of pesticides.)

Dicamba has been the subject of extreme controversy in recent years, with rampant reports of “peripheral” damage due to its strong tendency to drift and cause damage to nontarget plants. Midwestern states have been especially affected. Use of dicamba is also associated with harmful environmental/ecosystem and health impacts: it is toxic to birds, fish, and other aquatic organisms; it leaches into groundwater; and it plays a role in carcinogenicity, neurotoxicity, hepatic and renal damage, and developmental effects, among other anomalies.

The Trump EPA’s actions on dicamba were part of a larger context and mission. The OIG report confirms what Beyond Pesticides and other advocates have maintained for years: the Trump administration’s EPA acted repeatedly in ways that ignored, contravened, or outright distorted science in service of political aims, and worked to hobble the agency’s ability to protect the environment and the public. This happened with dicamba, as the OIG report notes, but was not confined to that compound’s fate. A very small sampling follows.

That Trump administration’s launch — featuring the appointment of Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator and a hiring freeze at the agency — was just the start. Out of the gates and in cahoots with the agrochemical industry, EPA reversed the agency’s own decision to ban use of the neurotoxic insecticide chlorpyrifos on food, and sought to delay release of information showing that three organophosphate pesticides are highly toxic to endangered species. Mr. Pruitt vowed to slash EPA staff in half by 2020, and banned scientists funded by EPA from serving on its Science Advisory Board, making EPA more beholden to industry “science” and its priorities of “profit through pollution.” EPA sought, in 2017, to harness the flow of scientific information coming out of the agency by banning its distribution via social media, and instituting on staff scientists an “unspecified vetting process before sharing their work outside the agency” — a move that violated EPA’s own scientific integrity policy. The administration attacked scientists who identified problems with EPA’s regulation of pesticides. Trump’s EPA weakened protections of U.S. waterways and wetlands. At the eleventh hour, Trump’s EPA finalized its misnamed “transparency rule,” which in fact significantly restricted the scientific research EPA could use in developing regulations to protect human health.

To put arms around the breadth of the environmental damage the Trump administration had caused (with continued effect) during its tenure, The New York Times published — on President Biden’s Inauguration Day — its chronicle, “The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.” A number of items on the list note harmful pesticide-related actions.

EPA’s history with dicamba is convoluted; the OIG report provides a simple and useful timeline:

After the Ninth Circuit Court ordered the dicamba OTT (over the top, meaning for post-emergent use) registrations to be vacated, a mere four months later those dicamba uses were reregistered yet again by the Trump EPA, this time for five years. In a press release, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) wrote, “Just days before the November presidential election, the Trump EPA rushed to reapprove dicamba products for five years, and farmers and conservation groups were forced again to sue to challenge the approval. This is the third time the agency has registered these products, each time with additional restrictions that have failed to stem devastating drift.”

Stephanie Parent, an attorney for CBD and other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against EPA for that decision, commented on the OIG report in an email to Progressive Farmer and DTN, “[A]fter the Office of the Inspector General’s damning report on the EPA’s highly politicized, anti-science approach to fast-tracking the use of this harmful pesticide, the agency should cancel its recent approval, not try to defend it in court. The EPA knows that anything less is likely to result in yet another summer of damaged fields and lost profits for farmers choosing not to use dicamba.”

Progressive Farmer further reports that EPA is standing by the 2020 reregistration decision. In an emailed statement, an EPA spokesperson said, “The agency has responded to the Office of the Inspector General’s report and is implementing several actions to ensure that our pesticide registration decisions are free from political interference and that the agency’s scientific integrity policy is upheld. The agency looks forward to productive conversations with the Office of the Inspector General as we work to resolve this matter. EPA stands by its 2020 decision made with the input of career scientists and managers.”

From the report: “The EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy notes that the Agency’s ability to pursue its mission to protect human health and the environment depends upon the integrity of the science on which the EPA relies. Per the policy, the EPA’s scientists and managers are expected to represent Agency scientific activities clearly, accurately, honestly, objectively, thoroughly, without political or other interference, and in a timely manner, consistent with their official responsibilities. Additionally, scientists and managers are expected to follow federal and EPA transparency requirements, including documenting the formulation and execution of policies and decisions. For pesticide registration decisions, the OPP must review registrations and document its decisions.”

What this EPA OIG report portends for dicamba with the new Biden administration is unclear. Michal Freedhoff, principal deputy assistant administrator​ for OCSPP in the Biden administration, confirmed that the agency agrees with OIG’s conclusion that EPA mishandled the 2018 dicamba decision. He agreed that EPA should follow existing protocols and processes, and that senior managers must justify and document any changes they make, including the reasons for them. He commented in an internal response to the report, “This incident occurred despite the best efforts of OCSPP’s career scientists and managers to recommend a different approach that was scientifically, procedurally and legally sound.”

This is confusing at best. One the one hand, EPA is saying that the agency “mishandled the 2018 dicamba decision.” On the other, it appears to be standing by its 2020 anti-science decision to reregister the pesticide for OTT uses. Advocates say that what EPA ought to do is ban the use of this toxic pesticide entirely. Short of that, they say it should at the very least abide by the 2020 order of the Ninth Circuit Court to vacate the registrations of the OTT uses, given that their registrations violated FIFRA, thus reversing the Trump EPA’s 2020 ruling. Beyond that, advocates maintain that EPA should undertake a wholesale review of dicamba, using legitimate data sources and the analyses of career experts both within and without the agency to set new rules that would protect farmers’ crops, farmworkers, ecosystems, and human health.

In November 2020, Beyond Pesticides wrote about the need for an EPA (and agency administrator) that understands: “the relationship between a healthy environment and a healthy economy; disproportionate risk and environmental racism; the importance of standing up to polluting industries; the existential threats facing the country and the globe; the failure of risk assessment and unrealistic risk mitigation measures that poison people and the environment, and destroy life; and the need for meaningful results, rather than politically expedient compromises.” Implementing these understandings into EPA’s work, according to Beyond Pesticides, would remedy a great many wrongs done during the past four years and longer.

If it acts seriously on its campaign slogan that science must underpin federal policy and decision making, the Biden administration faces a legion of harmful decisions that must be undone. We must all insist that President Biden’s EPA restore the role of legitimate science in federal policy and rulemaking, and jettison agency rulings that arose out of the political and corrupt motivations of the last administration. Beyond Pesticides asks the public to contact elected U.S. Senators and Representatives, and President Biden, to insist on a precautionary and protective EPA.

Sources: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/555174-trump-epa-changed-scientific-analyses-pesticide-re-approval-watchdog?rl=1 and https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2021-05/documents/_epaoig20210524-21-e-0146.pdf

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 27, 2021) Research by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) finds exposure to lindane and metalaxyl pesticides heightens thyroid cancer risk. Both incidents of non-aggressive thyroid tumors and advanced-stage thyroid cancer are on the rise. However, researchers speculate that environmental pollutants, such as pesticides, may contribute to this increase, especially considering the pervasiveness of pesticide exposure among the general population.

Globally, cancer is one of the leading causes of death, with over 8 million people succumbing to the disease every year. Notably, the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) predicts new cancer cases to rise 67.4% by 2030. Various environmental pollutants like pesticides have endocrine (hormone) disruption effects that promote higher instances of thyroid and reproductive cancers. Therefore, studies like these highlight the importance of understanding how pesticide use can increase the risk of latent diseases (e.g., cancers), which do not readily develop upon initial exposure. The researchers state, “More work is needed to understand the potential role of these chemicals in thyroid carcinogenesis.”

The European Union and endocrine disruptor expert (deceased) Theo Colborn, Ph.D., classify more than 55 pesticide active ingredients as endocrine disruptors (EDs), including chemicals in household products like detergents, disinfectants, plastics, and pesticides. Endocrine disruptors are xenobiotics (i.e., toxic chemical substances foreign to an organism or ecosystem). Past systematic research shows exposure to endocrine-disrupting pesticides can adversely impact thyroid hormone disruption and disease development. However, this study is the first to evaluate associations between occupational exposure to specific pesticides and the risk of thyroid cancer development.

Researchers gathered information on pesticide use and exposure via the Agricultural Health Study, a cohort of licensed pesticide applicators (mainly male) between 1993 to 1997 and 1999 to 2005. Exposure reports include 50 different pesticides, 44 of which researchers evaluated exposure for thyroid cancer risk. Using cumulative intensity-weighted lifetime exposure, scientists determined factors influence exposure measured in days. Researchers assessed thyroid cancer incidents among male participants during 2014/2015 and estimated hazard ratios and confidence intervals using Cox regression.

The study finds participants’ exposure to metalaxyl (benzenoid fungicide) and lindane (organochlorine insecticide) increases the risk of thyroid cancer. Exposure to high levels of carbaryl (carbamate insecticide) has an inverse association with thyroid cancer. Additionally, chlorimuron-ethyl (herbicide) has an inverse association with a common thyroid cancer subtype, papillary cancer.

It is no secret that specific endocrine-disrupting chemicals can induce changes in thyroid function, including pesticides like organochlorine, organophosphate, carbamate, and pyrethroid. Specific to thyroid function, pesticides can inhibit iodine uptake, binding to hormone receptors and transport proteins, and interfere with gene expression. However, impacts on the thyroid are not the only result of endocrine disruption. The entire endocrine system directly affects traditional endocrine glands and their hormones and receptors (i.e., estrogens, anti-androgens, thyroid hormones). Furthermore, endocrine disruption can negatively impact reproductive function, nervous system function, metabolic/immune function, and fetal/body development. NIH’s National Cancer Institute also finds many cancer-causing substances are endocrine disruptors. Moreover, 66 percent of all cancers have links to environmental factors, especially in occupations of high chemical use. Considering endocrine disruption has such close ties with hormone-related cancers like thyroid cancer, it is essential to avoid toxic chemical exposure to lessen potential cancer risks.

This study is the first to show a direct association between thyroid cancer—rather than function or disease—and specific occupational pesticides. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are well-known persistent organic pollutants (POPs) banned by the Stockholm Convention treaty in 2001. OCPs, like lindane, are primary pollutants of concern (UNEP, 2009), as their persistence and toxicity have adverse effects on environmental and biological health. These pollutants have a global distribution, with evaporation and precipitation facilitating long-range atmospheric transport, deposition, and bioaccumulation of hazardous chemicals in the environment. The U.S. was a signatory to the treaty, but U.S. Senate never ratified it, relegating U.S. officials to observer status.

While various POPs on the Stockholm Convention annex lists are no longer manufactured or utilized, lindane is an exemption, remaining active in pharmaceutical lice and scabies treatments. Metalaxyl is not a POP or banned chemical; however, extensive use of this fungicide has resulted in the primary fungi target (Pythium spp.) developing severe resistance. Additionally, a 2013 report found 117 pesticides, including metalaxyl, present in Long Island, New York’s drinking water. The chemical readily leaches, is highly soluble and persistent in water, and has links to acute toxicity, kidney and liver damage, and toxicity to birds. Metalaxyl alone was present 1,327 times in 546 different locations on Long Island. Lindane and metalaxyl can work together, or synergize, to produce a more severe, combined effect. Synergism is a common issue among pesticide mixtures and can underestimate the toxic impacts on human, animal, and environmental health. Hence, individuals encountering both chemicals, from pharmaceutical treatments and overapplication of chemicals to compensate for resistance, face elevated health risks.

The connection between pesticides and associated cancer risks is nothing new. Several studies link pesticide use and residue to various cancers, from more prevalent forms, like breast cancer, to rare forms like kidney cancer nephroblastoma (Wilms’ tumor). A past report using the same Agricultural Health Study (AHS) cohort demonstrates an association between non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lindane, establishing the chemical as carcinogenic to humans. Moreover, the same AHS cohort displayed higher thyroid cancer rates than the general population, especially regarding past use of atrazine (herbicide) and malathion (insecticide). Although this study finds that carbaryl has an inverse association with thyroid cancer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies the chemical as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” Furthermore, the European Commission report on endocrine disrupting substances classifies carbaryl as a category one endocrine disruptor, the highest category ranking.

Despite the rarity of endocrine cancers, thyroid cancer is the most common type, occurring before 40 years old in >30 percent of patients. Furthermore, women are at a higher risk for thyroid cancer than men, and pesticide exposures can disproportionately impact one sex more than the other. Thus, study researchers advocate for the evaluation of thyroid cancer risk and chemical exposure between sexes.

There is a lack of understanding behind the etiology of pesticide-induced diseases, including predictable lag time between chemical exposure, health impacts, and epidemiological data. Exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of developing chronic illnesses that may be rare and disproportionately impact various populations. Therefore, studies related to pesticides and cancer can help scientists understand the underlying mechanisms that cause the disease.

Beyond Pesticides tracks the most recent studies related to pesticide exposure through our Pesticide Induced Diseases Database (PIDD). This database supports the clear need for strategic action to shift away from pesticide dependency. For more information on the multiple harms pesticides pose on human health, see PIDD pages on cancer (including thyroid), endocrine disruption, and other diseases. 

Beyond Pesticides advocates a precautionary approach to pest management in land management and agriculture by transitioning to organic. Buying, growing, and supporting organic can help eliminate the extensive use of pesticides in the environment and from your diet. For more information on why organic is the right choice for both consumers and the farmworkers who grow our food, see Beyond Pesticides webpage, Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture. 

Help Beyond Pesticides educate and build the movement that will bring long-needed protection to humans, animals, and the entire environment by attending the National Pesticide Forum June 1, 8 and 15. Cultivating Healthy Communities  brings together expert scientists, farmers, policymakers, and activists to discuss strategies to eliminate harms from toxic chemical use in favor of nontoxic organic solutions. The conference began with a pre-conference on May 24, launched on May 125, and continues every Tuesday beginning June 1, June 8, and ending June 15, 2021. Registration is open today and available through the webpage on this link. It starts with us. Upon registration, you will be able to view talks from the entire conference.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Oncology Learning Network, Environment International

(Beyond Pesticides, May 26, 2021) Coffee leaf rust, caused by a fungus that can devastate fields of coffee plants, and the coffee industry of entire countries, was recently detected on the Hawaiian Islands for the first time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted quickly to approve the emergency use of a synthetic fungicide, but new research conducted in the fungus’ home range shows the promise of a hyperparasite biocontrol.

Caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, coffee leaf rust was first documented in its home range of Africa in the 1860s. By the later part of that decade, it had spread to Sri Lanka, and destroyed the country’s monoculture coffee plantations, which were subsequently replaced with tea cultivation. The disease has now been found in every coffee producing country, but up until late last year, it had never been seen on the Hawaiian Islands.

Thus, Hawaiian coffee farmers are rightly concerned about the disease. In response, EPA permitted the use of a product called Priaxor Xemium, a fungicide consisting of the active ingredients fluxapyroxad and pyraclostrobin, which has been linked to birth and developmental effects, and presents significant hazards to birds and aquatic organisms. “Hawai’i coffee growers now have an added method to combat the coffee leaf rust, which is extremely difficult to manage,” said Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser, chairperson of the Hawai’i Board of Agriculture. But while conventional chemical growers may opt to spray hazardous pesticides, organic farmers will look towards less toxic methods of management.

A new study published by a team of researchers from Sweden and Ethiopia shows promising indications for a biologically based approach to addressing H. vastatrix. Scientists began their investigation in Southwestern Ethiopia, the home range of Arabica coffee and its fungal disease. Sixty sites, consisting of 50 by 50m (164 x 164 ft) plots, were analyzed in the region over the course of three years. The sites varied in the level of management intensity, amount of shade provided the coffee plants, and the ecological characteristics surrounding the farmland.

Researchers aimed to catalog the interaction between H. vastatrix and another fungus known as Lecanicillium lecanii. L lecanii is considered a ‘hyperparasite,’ in that it is a parasite that attacks another parasite. Scientists know that the hyperparasite controls the rust fungus, but are not aware how widespread it is distributed, the conditions in which it thrives, and whether may be able to play a role in suppressing the rust in commercial production.

Results of the three-year study show that rust problems are enhanced during dry seasons, while the hyperparasite thrives in wet conditions. “We also found a slight variation in the environmental requirement of the rust and the hyperparasite. The rust can thrive in low moisture conditions whereas the hyperparasite favours areas characterised by moist and shaded habitats,” said Beyene Zewdie, PhD, study coauthor and researcher at Stockholm University to SciDev.Net.

The hyperparasite fared better at higher altitudes, while the rust thrived at lower altitude. And generally, shade grown coffee was able to provide a better habitat for the proliferation of the hyperparasite. “Coffee needs shade and growing the crop under shade could buffer the microclimate around the coffee shrubs,” Dr. Zewdie told SciDev.Net. “Shade also creates a conducive environment for the coffee leaf rust hyperparasite and we need to maximise this potential to make use of the capacity of the hyperparasite to suppress the rust in areas where the two interacting species co-occur.”

Scientists determined that prevalence of the rust fungus increased as management intensity increased. Less intensively managed coffee systems had higher abundance of the hyperparasite.

“The discovery of L. lecanii as a hyperparasite against the coffee rust fungus in a natural environment is a major breakthrough that may have a significant contribution in the management of the coffee leaf rust,” said Bernard Gichimu, PhD of Kenya’s University of Embu to SciDev.Net. “With climate change, the disease has become even more damaging … even in areas that were hitherto known to be less prone to the disease.”

Experts like Dr. Gichimu indicate that management with the rust fungus’ natural control organism could be the favored management method, as fungicides often fail to control the disease due to resistance or misapplication. Any fungicide will of course target both the rust fungus and kill its fungal hyperparasite. “Reduced use of fungicides will also reduce environmental pollution which will be beneficial to the non-target organisms and safe to both the farmers and coffee consumers,” Dr. Gichimu told SciDev.Net.

Previous research on organic coffee production determined that organic farms can foster a range of complex biological interactions that can help manage coffee leaf rust and other coffee plant pests. Rather than reaching for a bottle that would kill both pest and predator alike, all farmers in Hawai’i have the opportunity to show the world how the disease can be managed without toxic fungicides, by enacting preventive practices that increase the habitat conditions for pest predators.

For more information on managing pests through less toxic and biological means, join Beyond Pesticides National Pesticide Forum, which continues each Tuesday until June 15th. It’s not too late to register – visit Beyond Pesticides’ forum webpage to reserve your spot.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: SciDev.Net, The Maui News, Hawai’i Department of Agriculture, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (peer reviewed journal)

(Beyond Pesticides, May 25, 2021) High levels of glyphosate in urine later in a pregnancy is significantly associated with preterm birth, according to recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan. While awareness of the strong connection between glyphosate and certain cancers is growing among the public, the chemical’s link to adverse pregnancy outcomes is beginning to receive more attention. “Since most people are exposed to some level of glyphosate and may not even know it, if our results reflect true associations, then the public health implications could be enormous,” said senior author John Meeker, ScD, professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

This latest study is part of a cohort dubbed PROTECT (Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats), focused on investigating environmental exposures leading to preterm birth in Puerto Rico. Previous research indicates that Puerto Rico has some of the highest rates of preterm births in the United States, roughly matching Mississippi. With America’s abysmal track record for maternal care, preterm birth rates in these locations also represent the highest in the world.

In order to determine the association between glyphosate use and preterm pregnancy, pregnant women between the ages of 18 to 40 were recruited at local hospitals and clinics in northern PR at around 14 weeks pregnant. Study subjects did not have major preexisting conditions, such as diabetes, organ damage, or heart disease. Urine samples were obtained from the enrolled women roughly at weeks 18, 22, and 26 of gestation. These samples were tested for the presence of both glyphosate and its common breakdown component AMPA (Aminomethylphosphonic acid). Preterm births were defined in the study as delivery prior to the 37^th week of pregnancy.

Of the 247 women tested, glyphosate detection rates were roughly 78%, and AMPA was found in half of participants at each test. While associations were not found between glyphosate/AMPA levels found early in pregnancy and preterm birth, late term exposures differed. Detection of glyphosate during the last visit at 26 weeks was significantly associated with having a preterm birth – with data showing a roughly 67% increased odds with AMPA and 35% increased odds with glyphosate exposure.

Dr. Meeker indicates that the spark for this research came when seeing an advertisement for glyphosate after pulling out of a PR gas station. “I’m like, I’m wondering if we can measure its main chemical, glyphosate, in our participants. Maybe that’s high here,” Dr. Meeker said.

“Despite the potential for widespread exposure to glyphosate and AMPA, there is very little information regarding the health effects of exposure during pregnancy,” said study coauthor Monica Silver, PhD. “Ours is the first study to measure AMPA, and only the second to measure glyphosate in relation to birth outcomes.”

Beyond Pesticides reported on that prior research in 2017, in which 69 expectant mothers were tested and tracked. For that study, glyphosate was detected in 63 of 69 mothers, and women with higher levels were found to have significantly shorter pregnancies, and babies with lower birth weights. While studies are now findings concerning associations, there has been evidence of glyphosate’s impact on birth outcomes for decades.

In 2011, a report published by Earth Open Source sounded the alarm about the European Union’s knowledge of the associations between glyphosate and adverse birth outcomes. At the time, the data was limited to laboratory studies. Monsanto released a statement after the 2011 report was published, saying, “Based on our initial review, the Earth Open Source report does not appear to contain any new health or toxicological evidence regarding glyphosate.”

This highlights the weakness of regulations in both the EU and the U.S. While the laboratory evidence  (most often produced by the chemical manufacturers themselves) may indicate associations with birth defects, it is all too easy for regulators to hide behind risk and chance, and indicate that label changes will avert these dangers, or even that the risks are too low for any action at all. Even when strong epidemiological data is built, like it has now been for cancer effects, and is beginning to occur for birth defects, regulators at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lean on risk calculations and shirk their responsibility to protect the public.

Recent research finds that pregnant women have over 100 chemicals detectable in their bodies, with 89% of the chemicals detected of unknown origin, or lacking adequate data. Such ubiquitous exposure to environmental chemicals should concern us all. But even more concerning are studies which are able to pinpoint the health effects of one particular chemical, and then link that chemical directly to an adverse outcome. Although additional data is always needed to firm up connections, and make the jump between associations and likelihood of causality, with the range of ever-present environmental hazards, advocates argue that it should be incumbent upon regulators to act quickly and embrace a precautionary approach.

In the absence of protective regulations from the widespread use of pesticides like glyphosate, US residents, particularly sensitive populations like pregnant mothers, are encouraged to take their own precautions. One important step can be switching to an all organic diet. Study after study finds that making that switch significantly reduces the levels of synthetic pesticides like glyphosate in the body.

For more information on the link between pesticides and our health, attend the first ever virtual National Pesticide Forum, starting today at 1pm ET. Today’s workshop “Protecting Children from Pesticides” will feature expert speakers, including Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP of New York University Grossman School of Medicine, Bertha Lewis of The Black Institute, and Maida Galvez, MD, of the Dept. of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, and Dept. of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discussing the link between pesticide use and children’s health.  Click here to view the forum webpage and register now!

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: University of Michigan News, Environmental Health Perspectives

(Beyond Pesticides, May 24, 2021) Agriculture is a major contributor to climate change. In a recent article in Science, Clark et al. show that even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target. According to the International Panel of Climate Change, agriculture and forestry account for as much as 25% of human-induced GHG emissions. The contribution of animal agriculture has been estimated at 14.5% to 87% or more of total GHG emissions. These estimates include emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ammonia. The carbon dioxide contribution largely comes from converting land from natural forest to pasture or cropland.

Tell EPA and USDA that “regenerative” agriculture must be organic.

“Regenerative” agriculture is widely considered to be a solution for reducing or even reversing these impacts. Unfortunately, a movement by promoters of chemical-intensive agriculture has fooled some environmentalists into supporting toxic “regenerative” agriculture. The so-called “regenerative agriculture” promoted by these groups ignores the direct climate impacts of nitrogen fertilizers, the damage to soil health caused by pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the fact that pesticide and fertilizer manufacturing is dependent on fossil fuels—as key ingredients as well as for the heat and energy driving chemical reactions. It is important to see through this deception.

Regenerative agriculture must be organic.

Organic agriculture practices reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

Reducing Emissions of Nitrogen Oxides. Excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers in chemical-intensive agriculture is driving global nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions higher than any projected scenario, putting the world at greater risk of a climate catastrophe. According to research published by an international team of scientists in the journal Nature, failure to adequately address nitrous oxide emissions has the potential to impede the ability for the world to keep warming below the 2°C target established under the Paris Climate Agreement, necessitating further cuts in other greenhouse gasses.
 
A 2018 study from the University of Virginia and The Organic Center found that “reactive” nitrogen, in the form readily available to be taken up by plants, is conserved in organic systems. Jessica Shade, PhD of The Organic Center, noted that the research was “significant and timely because its findings show that many common organic farming practices—like composting and the use of manure fertilization in place of synthetic fertilizers—can recycle reactive nitrogen that is already in the global system, rather than introducing new reactive nitrogen into the environment, and thus have a much smaller environmental impact.”

Organic practices sequester carbon. Organic systems sequester significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere into on-farm soil carbon. A report from the Rodale Institute expounds on these benefits. It reads, “Simply put, recent data from farming systems and pasture trials around the globe show that we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available and inexpensive organic management practices, which we term ‘regenerative organic agriculture.’ These practices work to maximize carbon fixation while minimizing the loss of that carbon once returned to the soil, reversing the greenhouse effect.”

Organic practices preserve natural lands and biodiversity. Natural forests are more effective than tree plantations in sequestering carbon. Preserving natural land increases biodiversity, which also reduces dependence on petroleum-based pesticides. Organic farms are required to “comprehensively conserve biodiversity by maintaining or improving all natural resources, including soil, water, wetlands, woodlands, and wildlife, as required by § 205.200 of the regulations and per the § 205.2 definition of Natural resources of the operation.”

It is crucial, as we move forward with a plan to harness agriculture in the fight against climate change, that we not be misled into promoting the same practices that have created the problem. As aptly stated by Jeff Moyer of the Rodale Institute, “We believe that in order to be regenerative, you have to start by being organic. It’s a little disingenuous to say you can regenerate soil health and sequester carbon and still use nitrogen fertilizers and synthetic pesticides. What you’re really saying is equivalent to saying ‘I want to be healthy as a person, but I still want to smoke cigarettes.'”

Tell EPA and USDA that “regenerative” agriculture must be organic.

Jeff Moyer, the CEO of Rodale Institute, and others will discuss regenerative organic agriculture at the National Pesticide Forum, starts this week with a pre-conference session on Monday and runs every Tuesday for a month after that. Schedule won’t work for you? No worries, sessions will be available on demand for your viewing convenience. Register now. 

Letter to Biden Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Climate Ambassador John Kerry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan:

I am concerned that “regenerative” agriculture, which is widely considered to be a solution for reducing or even reversing climate change, will have negative impacts if not properly defined. Unfortunately, a movement by promoters of chemical-intensive agriculture has fooled some environmentalists into supporting toxic “regenerative” agriculture. The so-called “regenerative agriculture” promoted by these groups ignores the direct climate impacts of nitrogen fertilizers, the damage to soil health caused by pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the fact that pesticide and fertilizer manufacturing is dependent on fossil fuels—as key ingredients as well as for the heat and energy driving chemical reactions. It is important to see through this deception.

The climate crisis and the devastating decline in biodiversity are escalating as a result of uncontrolled and unnecessary reliance on toxic chemicals. These threats to life require a meaningful holistic strategy to end our fossil fuel dependence and use of materials that release harmful levels of noxious gases (including greenhouse gases). The current carbon market proposals fall short.

The lack of a holistic approach allows continued disproportionate hazards to people of color and communities living near toxic sites. Alongside proposals to replace the combustion engine with electric vehicles, agriculture must—across the board and on an expedited five-year schedule—shift to organic practices. Organic practices both sequester carbon and eliminate petroleum-based pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Importantly, the data show that organic agriculture now operates without sacrificing productivity or profitability. While the vested economic interests in the petroleum and chemical industry cling to the status quo, there are good jobs and money to be made in a green economy.

We need a national plan to shift to 100% organic farming. Organic land management is more effective at reducing emissions and sequesters carbon in the soil. There is already a national program for certifying farms that meet organic standards. Organic operations must “comprehensively conserve biodiversity by maintaining or improving all natural resources, including soil, water, wetlands, woodlands, and wildlife.”

Undefined “regenerative” agriculture falls short by ignoring the direct climate impacts of nitrogen fertilizers, the damage to soil health and ecosystem services caused by pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the fact that pesticide and fertilizer manufacturing is dependent on fossil fuels—as key ingredients and for the heat and energy-driving chemical reactions. 

We need a national land management plan.  Preserving natural land increases biodiversity, reducing dependence on petroleum-based pesticides, and is more effective in sequestering carbon. Biodiversity buffers against damage from climate change—for example, by protecting shorelines from storm damage.

Preserving natural lands and transitioning farms to organic production should be the cornerstones to combating climate change. I urge you to incorporate into a holistic approach, at the very least, the provisions included in the following:

*Climate Stewardship Act of 2019.

*The Agriculture Resilience Act of 2020.

*A pledge to conserve at least 30% of U.S. land and ocean by 2030 and 50% by 2050.

*The Resolution on a National Biodiversity Strategy.

*A $30 billion fund dedicated solely to fund the transition to organic agriculture, with a goal of achieving 100% organic farms by 2026.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 21, 2021) Do those ideas scratch your curiosity, science, policy, agriculture, and/or activist itch? Great — because the 2021 Annual National Pesticide Forum, Cultivating Healthy Communities: Confronting Health Threats, Climate Disasters, and Biodiversity Collapse with a Toxic-Free Future — begins very soon, so it is time to register!

Cultivating Healthy Communities is a singular opportunity to learn from top experts and connect with kindred people from all over the U.S. (as well as with some international participants). During plenary sessions, presenters will share their understandings and ideas about the problems we face, and about urgently needed strategies and solutions to solve them. The workshop sessions will be interactive, providing attendees the chance to interact with one another and presenting experts.

This annual National Pesticide Forum conference is convened, in 2021, by Beyond Pesticides and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai’s Institute for Exposomic Research. (“Exposomic” references the multitude of environmental factors to which an individual is exposed, and which can have effects on health.)

If you are groaning or rolling your eyes at the thought of yet another conference, know that Cultivating Healthy Communities is not one of those events (think old school, boring, and expensive, with airless event rooms, annoying name tags, bad food, and droning presenters). Nope. Cultivating Healthy Communities is the real deal for real people who care about the state of our world because it is:

• DIVERSE: covering very broad content, with diverse speakers from many backgrounds, areas of expertise, and lived experiences
• DIGITAL: nearly anyone can attend
• DOABLE: more convenient and accessible than ever before, it is configured for just one short evening session plus one afternoon a week for four consecutive weeks

The task of this gathering of minds and hearts and experience is defining meaningful solutions and a collective strategy for achieving them. (Note that this task cannot be achieved without you!)

How it all works. The Forum starts Monday, May 24 with a pre-conference session, Pesticide Literacy 101, that will usher participants into the framework of the conference through an overview on pesticides’ health and environment impacts, regulation, individual protections, communication about pesticide-related issues, and advocacy for more-protective policies. The conference proper begins the following afternoon (Tuesday, May 25) and continues for four consecutive Tuesday afternoons (May 25–June 15).

As for conference cost: note that donations are requested, but not required. To ensure that everyone who wants to participate is able to do so, we are offering low-cost and complimentary registration options to those who are experiencing financial hardship. Registration information for Cultivating Healthy Communities is found here.

Plenary and panel sessions launch each afternoon’s program, followed by several hour-long workshop options; each day’s program concludes with an integrative, half-hour session, including Biodiversity as the Context of Life, Modern Life and the Threat to the Future, Understanding the Urgency for Nontoxic Practices, and Moving Policy Change to Sustain Life.

The Content. Cultivating Healthy Communities offers a broad, holistic look at pesticide issues, with topics geared toward nearly every cohort: advocates, scientists and researchers, farmers and food system people, policymakers, communicators, and others. A quick sampling of just some session topics includes:

May 25:

• Protecting Children from Pesticides
• Transforming Agriculture for an Organic Future
• Climate Action for a Livable Future

June 1:

• Gardening in Partnership with Nature, Ecosystems, and Soil Biology
• Farmworker Communities on the Front Line
• Protecting Waterways and Agents of Global Change

June 8:

• Biodiversity and Local Farming
• Managing Our Communities Without Toxic Chemicals
• Practical and Holistic Approaches to Land Management

June 15:

• Cutting-edge Science: Environmental Contaminants
• Local Food System/Hubs/Food Sovereignty
• Challenging the Status Quo with Science and the Law

The people. Presenters — more than 80 of them — come from the worlds of public health and medicine, research and academia, agriculture and food systems, environmental justice and equity, journalism, nonprofit advocacy, and government. Passionate without exception, these presenters will provide information and perspective that will explain the many threats we face — grave ecosystem decline, the climate crisis, compromised health status and rising disease incidence across the globe, and shocking biodiversity loss. Beyond that, presenters — and attendees — will discuss tools for holistic thinking about these issues, and for robust solutions that are effective and focused on eliminating disproportionate harm to various societal cohorts, whether identified by race, gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic means, or other attributes.

Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides, and Sarah Evans, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, kick off the event on May 25. Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado (of the U.S. House of Representatives) closes the conference with his address, Moving Policy Change to Sustain Life. In between, presenting experts include (partial list):

• Lil Milagro Enriquez (Mycelium Youth Network)
• Carey Gillam (U.S. Right to Know; The Monsanto Papers)
• Tyrone Hayes, PhD (Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley)
• Bertha Lewis (The Black Institute)
• Tom Lovejoy, PhD (Amazon Biodiversity Center; UN Foundation; Environmental Science & Policy Department, George Mason University)
• Jeff Moyer (Rodale Institute)
• Chip Osborne (Osborne Organics)
• Heather Spalding (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association)
• Shanna Swan, PhD (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race)
• Ling Tan (Safe Grow Montgomery)
• Leonardo Trasande, MD (NYU Grossman School of Medicine)
• Frederick vom Saal, PhD (University of Missouri-Columbia)

Why Cultivating Healthy Communities: Confronting Health Threats, Climate Disasters, and Biodiversity Collapse with a Toxic-Free Future right now? Because the acute and existential environmental and health challenges we are confronting demand urgent solutions. Fundamental to those is the elimination of petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers, and the transition to regenerative organic land management and use of nontoxic materials that stop the harms from toxic chemical production, use, and disposal. This is the only long-term way to protect children and families, workers of all stripes, ecosystems, pollinators, and the rich diversity of organisms essential to life. The pandemic has demonstrated dramatically that ensuring a healthy and functional future for all, and for our planet, will require protecting those most vulnerable to health and environmental hazards, and remedying the disparities that underlie such vulnerabilities.

Defining meaningful solutions and a collective strategy is the charge of the Forum. We come together to empower effective action. You are part of the solutions! Whatever your interest — public health, food systems and sovereignty, pollinators and biodiversity, the climate emergency, water and soil quality, environmental justice, organic agriculture, scientific integrity and environmental regulation, or local, regional, or national advocacy — scratch that itch! Join us for this unique event and in this critical work: register now for Cultivating Healthy Communities!

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 20, 2021) Beyond Pesticides and Friends of the Earth (FOE) collaborated to analyze herbicide products at two of the most popular home and garden retailers, Home Depot and Lowe’s. This new Commercial Herbicide Analysis highlights the adverse health and environmental effects of widely available toxic pesticides while encouraging retailers to expand on—and consumers to use—safer, least/non-toxic pesticide products.

According to Akayla Bracey, Beyond Pesticides’ science and regulatory manager and lead researcher on the review, said, “People generally aren’t aware that the pesticides widely available in garden retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s are a threat to health and the environment, and that there are safer products that are available and used in organic land management.”

“Many herbicides that are widely available at home and garden stores are associated with a range of toxic impacts on human health and the environment, including harm to bees and other pollinators. To meet growing consumer demand for safer and more environmentally friendly products, home and garden stores must commit to phase out the most toxic products from their shelves and to increase the number of organic and safer alternatives that they offer,” says FOE senior staff scientist Kendra Klein, Ph.D.

Friends of the Earth composed a comprehensive list of products sold by Home Depot and Lowe’s by browsing online and local stores. Furthermore, the organization allowed each retailer to review and edit the list. Beyond Pesticides evaluated active ingredients in all products and performed a toxicity analysis using available epidemiological and laboratory and studies.

The analysis, conducted by Beyond Pesticides, reveals that approximately half of all Home Depot herbicide products (24 of 51) and Lowe’s herbicide products (23 of 40) contain ingredients considered Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HPPs). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) classifies HHPs as “pesticides linked with a high incidence of severe or irreversible adverse effects on human health or the environment.” The following active ingredients pose the most harm to human, animal, and ecosystem health, including cancer, reproductive harm, neurotoxicity, and hormone (endocrine) disruption: glyphosate, 2,4-D, dicamba, mecoprop, and pendimethalin. Of these five chemicals, all but dicamba are classifiable as HHPs. Only 29 percent of Home Depot (15 of 51) and 17 percent of Lowe’s (7 of 40) herbicide products qualify as least toxic or organic.

Many individuals are unaware of what chemicals are in the products they use, let alone their chemical effects. Conventional commercially available herbicides contain chemicals where studies find exposure can cause preventable diseases. Some of these diseases include asthma, learning disabilities, birth and reproductive abnormalities, endocrine and immune system disorders, brain and nervous system disorders, and several types of cancer. “Pesticide exposure can promote the development of various diseases, many of which are co-occurring…These links to diseases support an urgent need to shift to toxic‐free practices and policies,” Warren Porter, Ph.D., Beyond Pesticides board member and professor emeritus of zoology and environmental toxicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Moreover, pesticide resistance among plants and insects is increasing along with genetic engineering of pesticide-tolerant crops. These instances have implications for rising levels of pesticide applications to eliminate pests. However, the solution is not to spray more toxic chemicals. We must educate consumers and encourage companies to protect people and pollinators by rejecting toxic products and expanding safer options.

To view the analysis visit, https://www.beyondpesticides.org/resources/pesticide-gateway/commercial-herbicide-analysis

See Beyond Pesticides Lawns and Landscapes webpage and Products Compatible with Organic Landscape Management.

Help Beyond Pesticides educate and build the movement that will bring long-needed protection to humans, animals, and the entire environment by attending the National Pesticide Forum this spring. Cultivating Healthy Communities will bring together expert scientists, farmers, policymakers, and activists to discuss strategies to eliminate harms from toxic chemical use in favor of nontoxic organic solutions. It begins with a pre-conference session on Monday, May 24, and continues every Tuesday beginning May 25, June 1, June 8, and ending June 15, 2021. Registration is open today and available through the webpage on this link. It starts with US.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Beyond Pesticides

(Beyond Pesticides, May 19, 2021) Last week Health Canada quietly announced its intent to cancel all remaining registrations of the brain-damaging insecticide chlorpyrifos. The decision by Canada’s federal pesticide regulators comes shortly after a U.S. federal court gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a 60-day deadline to make a final decision on whether to amend or cancel the chemical’s registration. With Europe and now Canada eliminating use of this hazardous insecticide, advocates are urging that the Biden Administration, under EPA administrator Michael Regan, finally puts an end to the decades of harm caused after chlorpyrifos was first registered in 1965.

Up until recently, Canada and the U.S. had relatively similar provisions regulating chlorpyrifos use. Officials in both countries eliminated homeowner use, and tightened up on agricultural uses in the 2000s and early 2010s, requiring additional personal protective equipment and drift mitigation measures.

However,  Health Canada  began to look at significant restrictions on chlorpyrifos in 2019, when it proposed eliminating a range of uses that threaten environmental health. Under its draft decision, regulators planned to eliminate all uses except for mosquito control, structural pest control, outdoor ornamentals, and greenhouse ornamentals. Certain agricultural uses were provided an extended phase-out period with additional risk mitigation measures.

Meanwhile, throughout the late 2010s, EPA set out to defend chlorpyrifos use. Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt reversed a pending order during the Obama Administration that would have cancelled chlorpyrifos, raising serious concerns around conflict of interest with the pesticide’s primary registrant, Dow Chemical. Lawsuits continued to work their way through the courts, but by the end of 2020, EPA proposed a reregistration of chlorpyrifos with risk mitigation measures health experts regarded as wholly inadequate. The agency proposed label amendments, additional personal protective equipment, and limited, additional drift mitigation measures.

Health Canada published its draft decision at the end of 2020, and indicated that it was subject to further review based on the results of its human health risk assessment, which had yet to be completed. As part of that review the agency requested a “data call-in,” indicating that in order to maintain the registration of the chemical, its manufacturers needed to provide regulators with specific studies or information on certain health impacts. According to a release published by Health Canada last week, chlorpyrifos manufacturers “failed to satisfy the data requirements.” As a result, regulators decided to cancel all remaining uses, including those they had considered retaining at the end of last year. Under the cancellation, final retail sales will stop in December 2022, and remaining agricultural uses have a December 2023 cut-off date.

As Canada cancels and phases out chlorpyrifos, EPA has less than 60 days to make a final decision whether to continue to allow uses of the chemical. As it stands, chlorpyrifos is currently allowed on a range of food crops, from almonds, to apples, broccoli, cucumbers, onions, peppers, strawberries,  and walnuts. Fruits and vegetables are part of a healthy diet, but the cumulative levels of chlorpyrifos on food products and in our environment pose significant risks to health, particularly children with developing bodies. And within that group, the children of farmworkers are likely to be the most at risk, given the numerous routes of potential exposure (from family members returning home from work, from air in an agricultural region, as well as in food and water).

The range of food products chlorpyrifos is allowed on underlines the importance of choosing organic whenever possible. Consumer choices in the marketplace can make a big difference. Feeling public pressure, the insecticide’s main registrant, Corteva (formerly DowDupont) announced that it will stop producing the chemical.

Concerned U.S. residents are strongly encouraged to let EPA know what they think about the continued allowance of this highly toxic product. As the agency deliberations during its 60-day deadline, EPA needs to know that the public is paying attention to its decision, and will hold the agency accountable to the science. But while EPA will be making a decision on chlorpyrifos, its important to let the agency know that other neurotoxic chemicals should be next on the chopping block. Take action today to tell EPA to follow Health Canada’s lead by banning all chlorpyrifos use, and follow up by cancelling other neurotoxic pesticides.

 All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Health Canada

(Beyond Pesticides, May 18, 2021) Organic meat is far less likely to be adulterated with multi-drug resistant bacteria (MDRB) than conventional meat, according a study published earlier this month in Environmental Health Perspectives. The research by experts at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the latest news on the health and safety benefits of choosing organic, which prohibits the regular use of risky antibiotics, for one’s food purchases. Scientists indicate that contaminated foods pose serious dangers for consumers, public health, and the economy at large. “The presence of pathogenic bacteria is worrisome in and of itself, considering the possible increased risk of contracting foodborne illness,” senior author Meghan Davis, PhD, associate professor at the Bloomberg School said. “If infections turn out to be multidrug resistant, they can be more deadly and more costly to treat.”

To determine the level of contamination in various packaged meats, scientists turned to the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), a collaborative program between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For a five year period spanning 2012-2017, NARMS collected meat products (chicken breast, ground beef, ground turkey, and pork chops) from 19 different U.S. states. Within each state, NARMS selected a random food retailer within 50 miles of their lab and collected 40 samples each month. In sum, 39,349 meat samples were analyzed for the study, encompassing 216 conventional meat processors, 123 processors that split their operations between organic and conventional, and 3 fully organic processing facilities. Roughly 8% of tested samples were organic, while the rest were conventional.

Of the nearly 40,000 samples analyzed, 1,422 (3.6%) were contaminated with MDRB. Organic meats had 29 of their 3,235 samples contaminated (.9%), while with conventional produce 1,393 out of 36,114 samples (3.9%) contained dangerous antibiotic resistant bacteria.

This translates to organic certified meats being 56% less likely to be contaminated with MDRB. A deeper look into the data shows overall contamination lower at facilities that split conventional with organic production, when compared to those that only process conventional meats. Conventional meats from pure conventional facilities were likely to be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria roughly a third of the time (34.1%), while conventional meats from split facilities only had a roughly one in four chance (24.1%). “The required disinfection of equipment between processing batches of organic and conventional meats may explain our findings of reduced bacterial contamination on products from facilities that process both types of meats,” Dr. Davis notes.

Organic is not safer by chance, but by design. Organic standards, governed by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, were crafted with the goal of protecting public health and ecosystem services. Organic standards prohibit the use of antibiotics in poultry after their second day of life, and in mammals after the mother’s third trimester. Organic certified meats are also required to follow a stricter processing protocol, and in split operations organic meats cannot be processed on the same equipment as conventional meats without first undergoing cleaning and disinfecting.  

In addition to food safety, past studies have found organic meats and other animal products to be more nutrient dense than its conventional counterparts. A 2016 study found 50% higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and lower concentrations of saturated fat in organic meat when compared to conventional. This is due in large part to the way the animals are raised. Organic livestock are often reared outdoors and provided grass fodder, which have higher levels of healthy omega-3s, as opposed to grains, which have less.

In addition to improved nutrition and lower bacterial loads, organic products contain far fewer amounts of toxic pesticides and other chemicals. A study published in July of last year found that conventional milk contained a range of hazardous materials – from growth hormones, to antibiotics, and pesticides – that are not found in organic milks.

Time and time again, studies have found that switching from a mostly conventional to all organic diet makes significant changes in the amount of pesticides one is exposed to. That’s because organic agriculture doesn’t allow any toxic synthetic pesticides to be used on certified organic foods.

But organic isn’t perfect. Watchdog organizations have cited many organic producers for conditions similar to those seen in ‘factory farms’ under conventional production practices. There are also concerns over USDA’s rulemaking backlog, which have delayed the implementation of regulations that would improve the public and ecological health profile of organic practices.  

Despite these shortcomings, organic remains far and beyond the better choice over conventionally produced foods. Organic standards are crafted with input from organic consumers and other stakeholders, and intended to be continuously improved upon. That’s why it’s critical for consumers to stay engaged in the rulemaking process. Raise your voice as an organic consumer by letting USDA know it must follow and implement the recommendations of the expert, independent National Organic Standards Board in order to maintain organic integrity. For more ways that you can get involved in protecting and improving organic practices, see Beyond Pesticides Keeping Organic Strong program page.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: John Hopkins University Hub, Environmental Health Perspectives

(Beyond Pesticides, May 17, 2021) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has less than two months to decide whether to cancel or modify its registration of the brain-damaging organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos, following a decision from a federal appeals court. The ruling comes after more than a decade of delay from the federal agency tasked with protecting public health and the environment from the hazards of chemicals like chlorpyrifos. The decision now falls to the Biden Administration’s EPA Administrator Michael Regan, after the previous administration reversed a proposal to ban agricultural uses of chlorpyrifos in 2017. Most residential uses of the chemical were banned in 2000. 

Tell EPA to ban chlorpyrifos and other neurotoxic pesticides.

The target of action by which chlorpyrifos and many other pesticides kill is the nervous system. It is not surprising, then, that pesticides also target the nervous system in humans. They are particularly hazardous to children, who take in greater amounts of pesticides relative to their body weight than adults, and whose developing organ systems are typically more sensitive to toxic exposures.

The body of evidence in the scientific literature shows that pesticide exposure can adversely affect a child’s neurological, respiratory, immune, and endocrine systems, even at low exposure levels. Several pesticide families, such as synthetic pyrethroids, organophosphates, and carbamates, are also known to cause or exacerbate respiratory symptoms like asthma. The American Academy of Pediatrics wrote, “Epidemiologic evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems.”

In deciding whether to ban chlorpyrifos, a dangerous, proven neurotoxicant that has dire impacts on children, EPA’s action to allow its continued use would be a failure of both its protective mission and ethics. Further, it would be an environmental justice failure, given that risks of exposure fall disproportionately on low-income African American and Latino families, including farmworker families, who are at the greatest risk of harm. The ban on chlorpyrifos will be an important first step in eliminating neurotoxic pesticides.

Chlorpyrifos is a poster child for the problems with federal pesticide regulation, but chlorpyrifos is just one of numerous organophosphate class chemicals remaining on the market. These WW2-era nerve agents are relics of the past, that have no place in 21st century agriculture and should have already been eliminated from use. And beyond the organophosphates lie a number of other insecticides that the chemical-intensive farming will utilize as toxic substitutes. This toxic treadmill, with the increased use of bee-toxic neonicotinoid and highly hazardous synthetic pyrethroids, becomes a Faustian bargain for farmers who rely on toxic chemicals that are harmful to health and the environment.

The court set a hard deadline on the agency, which the judges appeared to indicate was particularly lenient given the circumstances. EPA now has 60 days to either modify the food tolerances (allowed levels of the chemical on food) of chlorpyrifos and publish a finding that the new tolerances are safe for infants and children, or revoke all tolerances. The agency must also determine whether to modify or cancel registration of the chemical for food use under federal pesticide law.

For these reasons it is critical that the need to eliminate this particular chemical be seen as an indictment of chemical-intensive farming as a whole. It is not acceptable to repeatedly weigh the evils of one hazardous chemical or another when other systems exist that do not rely on these products. Organic farming eliminates highly toxic synthetic pesticides in favor of practices that enhance biodiversity, soil health, and climate resilience. Like the move away from fossil fuel dependent energy and toward renewable systems, organic practices will be the future of farming in the 21st century.

Tell EPA to ban chlorpyrifos and other neurotoxic pesticides.

Letter to EPA Administration Michael Regan

The federal appeals court has given EPA less than two months to decide whether to cancel or modify its registration of the brain-damaging organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos. The ruling comes after more than a decade of delay from the federal agency—yours—tasked with protecting public health and the environment from the hazards of pesticides. The decision now falls to you, as the Biden Administration’s EPA Administrator, after the previous administration reversed a proposal to ban agricultural uses of chlorpyrifos in 2017. Most residential uses of the chemical were banned in 2000.

Chlorpyrifos and many other pesticides kill by targeting the nervous system. It is not surprising, then, that pesticides also target the nervous system in humans. They are particularly hazardous to children, who take in greater amounts of pesticides relative to their body weight than adults, and whose developing organ systems are typically more sensitive to toxic exposures.

The body of evidence in the scientific literature shows that pesticide exposure can adversely affect a child’s neurological, respiratory, immune, and endocrine systems, even at low exposure levels. Several pesticide families, such as synthetic pyrethroids, organophosphates, and carbamates, are also known to cause or exacerbate respiratory symptoms like asthma. The American Academy of Pediatrics wrote, “Epidemiologic evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems.”

In the upcoming decision, EPA’s action to allow its continued use of chlorpyrifos—a dangerous, proven neurotoxicant that has dire impacts on children—would be a failure of both its protective mission and ethics. Further, it would be an environmental justice failure, since risks of exposure fall disproportionately on low-income African American and Latino families, including farmworker families, who are at the greatest risk of harm. The ban on chlorpyrifos will be an important first step in eliminating neurotoxic pesticides.

Chlorpyrifos is a poster child for the problems with federal pesticide regulation, but chlorpyrifos is just one of numerous organophosphate chemicals remaining on the market. These WW2-era nerve agents have no place in 21st century agriculture and should have already been eliminated from use. Beyond the organophosphates lie a number of other insecticides that the chemical-intensive farming will utilize as toxic substitutes. This toxic treadmill, with the increased use of bee-toxic neonicotinoid and highly hazardous synthetic pyrethroids, becomes a Faustian bargain for farmers who rely on toxic chemicals that are harmful to health and the environment.

The court set a hard deadline for the agency, which the judges appeared to indicate was particularly lenient given the circumstances. EPA now has 60 days to either modify the food tolerances (allowed levels of the chemical on food) of chlorpyrifos and publish a finding that the new tolerances are safe for infants and children, or revoke all tolerances. The agency must also determine whether to modify or cancel registration of the chemical for food use under federal pesticide law.

For these reasons it is critical that the chlorpyrifos story be regarded by EPA as an indication of the failure of chemical-intensive farming as a whole. It is not acceptable to repeatedly weigh the evils of one hazardous chemical or another when other systems exist that do not rely on these products. Organic farming eliminates highly toxic synthetic pesticides in favor of practices that enhance biodiversity, soil health, and climate resilience. Like the move away from fossil fuel dependent energy and toward renewable systems, organic practices will be the future of farming in the 21st century. Please ensure that EPA reviews all pesticides in light of these larger considerations.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 14, 2021) In a prime example of cart-before-the-horse, greenwashing, or perhaps “beewashing,” a British company has badly missed the mark in its latest attempt to market a product while “doing good” and generating goodwill with customers. As The Guardian reports, Marks & Spencer, the giant United Kingdom (UK) retailer, is releasing 30 million managed honey bees into rural British landscapes in what the company is promoting as an effort to support biodiversity and the beekeeping sector. However, according to experts and environmental advocates, unleashing that many honey bees may well actually harm both wild native bees and honey bees themselves. Critics of the move say this means that wild bees will likely face fiercer competition for already inadequate food sources. Beyond Pesticides adds that these honey bees have been dispatched to the same pesticide-contaminated habitats in which existing bee populations of all kinds face harmful exposures — exacerbating issues surrounding pollinator decline rather than solving them.

Marks & Spencer’s Twitter marketing promotes the project in this way: “Did you know that bees contribute to a third of the food we eat? At M&S, we’re introducing more than 30 million bees to our Select Farms to help protect the future of these all-important pollinators and the planet.” The plan behind the hype is that M&S, having placed some 1,000 hives on 25 farms, will soon have a new product — “single-estate honey” — to market to consumers who may think this is a “virtuous” product.

In its blog, M&S adds to the cachet by noting that the bees are housed in “cedar beehives, many made in the 1930s, with plenty of nectar nearby.” It adds, “Because we’ll be harvesting honey from different farms with natural biodiversity, each crop will have its own unique flavour. Better yet, the hives do good for the environment, since bees are natural pollinators and allow nature to do its work. Our work with honey bees is only part of the story, though — as part of our Farming with Nature project, we’re encouraging pollinator diversity and promoting natural habitats across our farms.”

In fact, M&S is unlikely to be doing either of those things: managed honey bees do not contribute to biodiversity (see more below), and at least some of the “natural” habitats the company claims to promote through this effort are likely subject to the use of pesticides in one or more forms. Though the UK has acted more protectively than the U.S., neonicotinoid pesticides continue to show up in UK honey despite a partial ban.

Worldwide, 75% of crops depend on pollination by insects or other creatures. In the UK, honey bees are responsible for pollination of roughly a third of crop production; however, wild pollinators supply critical services that contribute to pollination and productivity. Honey bees are one of more than 270 species of bee in the UK — many of which are in significant decline. According to recent research, a steep global drop in bee species has been chronicled: approximately 25% fewer species were reported from 2006 through 2015 than was the case prior to 1990.

Reaction in the UK advocate community to the M&S announcement has been swift and scathing. Gill Perkins, chief executive of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, commented: “This is greenwashing or beewashing at its most blatant.” Matt Shardlow, head of the conservation group Buglife, says, “They are actually ending up doing something that may damage the environment. There are not enough wild flowers to support the populations we’ve got. It’s about creating a better countryside for pollinators, not chucking more pollinators out into the countryside.”

Siting 30 million European honey bees across the M&S host farms is, according to ecologist Steven Falk, “not natural at all — it’s farming,” adding that the company has gotten this “horribly wrong. . . . There’s growing evidence if you saturate the landscape with honeybees, it has a profound impact and puts pressure on the wild pollinators.” This view is supported by 2019 French research demonstrating that the global spread of the European honey bee via managed bee farming/leasing pits wild native bee populations against the “intruders,” resulting in bee biodiversity losses.

In addition, managed honey bees tend to pollinate a narrow range of plants with “showy” flowers. Native wild pollinators pick up a lot of the slack, and are, according to researchers, twice as effective as honey bees in the pollination of certain crops, such as strawberries, tomatoes, almonds, coffee, and oilseed rape. The Guardian reports that this is because honey bees collect “damper” pollen that adheres to their bodies, whereas wild pollinators tend to collect drier pollen that is more liberally shed onto flowers. Introducing millions of managed honey bees can alter ecosystems and habitats because of their selective pollination habits, according to Mr. Shardlow of Buglife.

M&S’s honey bee project might be regarded, at best, as evidence of the company’s poor knowledge and/or poor judgment. Indeed, University of Sussex Professor Dave Goulson, PhD had this to say on Twitter: “Just adding more honeybees is not the answer to declining pollinator numbers! Come on @marksandspencer, do your homework.” Beyond Pesticides asserts that a far better gesture would have been investments in ridding the British countryside of pesticides that harm pollinators, restoring native habitats, and installing and supporting widespread, appropriate foodstocks (plants) for pollinators, such as bumblebees, red mason bees, and hoverflies.

Marks & Spencer defends its bee program, saying it is only one facet of its Farming with Nature project, which the company says is expected to boost pollinator diversity. A M&S spokesperson commented: “It is designed to help our Select Farmers become more resilient to the biggest environmental challenges they face and champion the uptake of nature-friendly farming practices. We are committed to sustainable farming that safeguards wild pollinators, including bumblebees and solitary bees, so we have placed our honeybee hives in very carefully selected areas, in small groups and more than two miles apart to avoid over-populating a particular area. None of our honeybees are imported. We’re discussing how to develop the project with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and we’re also in conversation with Buglife — we’re hoping to work closely with them to nurture all British pollinators.”

The bigger picture that M&S appears to be missing is this: changes to one or more elements of an ecosystem can easily upset ecological balance and ecosystem function. The introduction of many millions of honey bees could be such a destabilizing element. Beyond Pesticides has covered the significant and additive stress on wild bees from both food scarcity and pesticide exposure. Predicted increased competition for appropriate food sources, on the part of wild bees and other native pollinators, is one expected impact of the M&S honey bee project.

Pesticide use is also a harmful stressor on wild (and all) bee populations, as well as on other wildlife, and is at least a partial cause of bee and other pollinator declines. Adding all those managed honey bees to 25 farm ecosystems does little to improve the lot of any bees; it does mean that millions more bees, both honey bees and wild bees, may be exposed to toxic pesticides, causing more devastation to bee populations.

Bringing more pollinators to live on or near pesticide-contaminated “killing fields” — or attracting them via planting food-source plants — does not address the base problem, which is pesticide use in land management. Pesticides are used on agricultural fields, and on seeds and crops grown in them; residues from spraying can drift to other areas and settle on soil and vegetation (including pollinator food sources), and contaminated water runoff can end up in drainage ditches and waterways that are favored by some flowering species. These chemicals are also used in non-agricultural areas for turf management, such as in public parks, greenspaces, golf courses, and other recreation or open spaces that may have pollinator-friendly vegetation (whether intentionally planted or “volunteer”). Direct exposures to pesticides, and/or indirect exposures through feeding from contaminated plants, exacerbate the negative impacts of these chemicals on pollinator populations. Opportunities for pollinator exposure to chemical pesticides can be rife.

Beyond Pesticides captured the bigger picture well in its introduction to its 2017 annual Pesticide Forum, Healthy Hives, Healthy Lives, Healthy Land: “Complex biological communities support life. With this understanding, we advocate for practices and policies that are sustainable and regenerative, create resiliency, and nurture healthy interactive organisms in the web of life. We rely on the best independent scientific knowledge available, recognize uncertainties when they arise, and choose the path that is most protective of health and the environment. The decline of pollinators is a clarion call to action, as it reflects a regulatory system that is out of touch with the effects of turning habitat into pesticide-laden killing fields, poisoning our waterways, and destroying ecological balance.”

Beyond Pesticides has written that “Pollinators are a bellwether for environmental stress as individuals and as colonies.” Pesticides play a role in the so-called insect apocalypse, in colony collapse disorder, and in plunges in insect biodiversity, all of which signal that ecosystems and their species are in dire shape. Fundamental to changing this trajectory is the elimination of chemical dependency in all land management‚ through a rapid transition to organic practices. Organic regenerative agriculture and organic land management practices not only proscribe the use of toxic chemicals, but also, nurture healthy ecosystems and robust biodiversity.

Protection of species — whether bees, other pollinators, or wildlife — cannot be achieved without correction of the underlying agricultural and land management dependency on pesticides. Ultimately, the widespread adoption of organic management systems is necessary to protect biodiverse ecosystems and their inhabitants.

Meet with beekeepers, scientists, and advocates at the upcoming Cultivating Healthy Communities Forum, starting May 24 and 25, and running every subsequent Tuesday until June 15. Registration options are available for every budget, including a no-cost option. See here for a complete program and schedule of events.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/16/marks-spencer-honeybee-project-threat-biodiversity-conservationists-aoe

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 13, 2021) Scientists are advocating for stricter pesticide bans to lower deaths from deliberate pesticide ingestion. The request for this toxic pesticide ban follows a University of South Australia study detailing discrepancies in World Health Organization (WHO) classifications of pesticide hazards that rely on animal rather than human data.

Previous studies demonstrate an increased risk of developing depression, especially among agricultural workers and landscapers who use pesticides. Acute exposure to chemicals, including organophosphate and carbamate pesticides, tends to put farmers at greater risk of suicide than the general population. This research highlights the significance of assessing pesticide toxicity and health effects using human data rather than animals to understand health effects resulting from pesticide exposure. Society tends to rank mental health risks second to physical health. However, pesticide poisonings account for one in five suicides globally. Therefore, it is vital to address the accessibility and necessity of conventional pesticide use to safeguard human well-being, especially in countries lacking adequate chemical regulations. The study’s scientists note, “The human data for acute toxicity of pesticides should drive hazard classifications and regulation. We believe that a global benchmark for registration of pesticides should include a less than 5% case fatality after self-poisoning, which could prevent many deaths and have a substantial effect on global suicide rate.”

Researchers studied a cohort of 34,902 patients (age 11 and up) with possible or known self-poisonings from nine hospitals in rural Sri Lanka. All patients were a part of a South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration. Research assistants identified ingested pesticides using historical or physical evidence, as well as blood sample analysis.

From 2002 to 2019, 2,299 (6.6 percent) patients died from pesticide ingestion, with researchers identifying 23,139 specific pesticides among all patients. Although fatalities from pesticide ingestion vary, the highest fatalities occur with paraquat ingestion, 41.8 percent. The most toxic pesticides before 2011 include paraquat, dimethoate, and fenthion, two of which are currently available for use in the U.S. but banned in Sri Lanka. However, post-2013, after Sri Lanka banned the three pesticides, profenofos, propanil, fenobucarb, carbosulfan, and quinalphos, began causing the most deaths—7.2 to 8.6 percent). Deaths from pesticide poisonings are in decline. 2013 to 2019 saw a 3.7 percent death rate compared to 10.5 percent from 2002 to 2006. Although researchers largely attribute the decline in deaths to pesticide bans, there is a modest decline in mortality from non-banned pesticide poisonings.

Individuals suffering from pesticide exposure face a disproportionate risk of developing various health adversaries, including impaired neurological function leading to psychiatric disorders. Exposure to agricultural pesticides puts farmers at six times greater risk of exhibiting depressive symptoms, including chronic anxiety, irritability, restlessness, and sadness. Pesticide exposure from farms or commercially-managed fields threatens residential (non-occupational) populations living nearby who are more likely to have high depressive symptoms. Exposure to organochlorines and fumigants (gaseous pesticides) heighten an individual’s risk of depression by 90% and 80%, respectively. Organochlorines are a chemical of concern as it induces a myriad of health problems, including reproductive dysfunction, endocrine disruption, cancer, and fetal defects. Though the U.S. bans the use of many organochlorines, these chemicals can still expose individuals to volatile concentrations as they are highly persistent in the environment. Fumigants are a human health concern as many fumigants are gases that can cause acute toxicity upon inhalation and ingestion. Linear models reveal an association between lifelong pesticide poisoning episodes and the increased risk of developing mental disorders among tobacco farmers. Tobacco farmers using organophosphate pesticides have a higher prevalence of minor psychiatric disorders. Organophosphates are a family of insecticides derived from World War II nerve agents. They are cholinesterase inhibitors, meaning that they bind irreversibly to the active site of an essential enzyme for normal nerve impulse transmission, acetylcholine esterase (AchE), inactivating the enzyme.

Depression symptoms are of concern among individuals, whether pesticide exposure is occupational and residential. Annually, only half of Americans with depression diagnosis seek treatment for symptoms. Untreated symptoms of depression can increase the risk of suicide, a severe sign of depression. Furthermore, some studies find treatments for depression (i.e., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) from acute pesticide poisoning increase the risk of suicide. Hence, pesticide exposure can exacerbate suicidal thoughts and pesticide provocation as a suicide agent. A study published in the WHO Bulletin found that people storing organophosphate pesticides in their homes are more likely to have suicidal thoughts as the exposure rate is higher. The study found an association between suicidal thoughts and ease of household pesticide accessibility. Geographic areas with the most home storage of pesticides also have the highest levels of suicidal ideation throughout populations. WHO scientists recognize pesticide self-poisoning is one of the most significant global methods of suicide as increases in pesticide toxicity makes them potentially lethal substances. Robert Stewart, Ph.D., a researcher for the WHO Bulletin, stated that: “Organophosphate pesticides are widely used around the world. They are particularly lethal chemicals when taken in overdose and are a cause of many suicides worldwide.” With that in mind, researchers say it is vital to recognize how pesticide exposure and accessibility can influence mental illnesses. 

To address health issues regarding pesticide poisoning incidents, health care providers must have sufficient information on signs and symptoms of chemical exposure. Often, farmers, landscapers, and other individuals encountering chemical exposure through ingestion, inhalation, and skin (dermal) contact are unaware of the non-physical side effects. Considering depression related to acute pesticide exposure may persist long after initial exposure, those working with toxic pesticides must have adequate protective equipment to minimize exposure. Therefore, government agencies need to assess the provocation of psychiatric disorders accompanying acute and chronic pesticide exposure to protect human health.

This study finds that WHO needs to address discrepancies in hazardous pesticide classifications to ensure pesticides are not a means of purposeful death. There was a decrease in pesticide poising deaths from non-banned pesticides. However, that does not mean these pesticides do not pose any other chronic health effects that could exacerbate psychiatric disorders. For instance, all five current-use pesticides associated with pesticide poisoning deaths in Sri Lanka produce neurotoxic effects that can impact psychiatric disorders. Profenofos (organophosphate), propanil (anilide), fenobucarb (carbamate), carbosulfan (carbamate), and quinalphos (organophosphate) all impact acetylcholinesterase activity in the brain, producing depression-like symptoms. Hence, exposure to these chemicals remains just as much of a risk.

Although Sri Lanka banned the top three most toxic pesticides used for purposeful ingestion, paraquat and dimethoate remain EPA registered for use in the United States. A Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) report notes a 37 percent increase in pesticide use on commercially managed lands, like wildlife sanctuaries, from 2016 to 2018. Paraquat use increased by 100 percent, despite links to a plethora of health effects, including Parkinson’s disease and other neurotoxic disorders, cancer, reproductive dysfunction, kidney/liver damage, and birth/developmental abnormalities, as well as adverse impacts on animals and the ecosystem. The common agricultural pesticide, dimethoate, is highly toxic. Exposure can cause neurotoxicity, cancer, kidney/liver effects, reproductive dysfunction, birth/developmental abnormalities, and endocrine disruption. Similar to paraquat, this pesticide also adversely impacts animals and the ecosystem.

This study is not the first to support a call to enact toxic pesticide bans. A WHO-funded study detailing such a ban can reduce annual suicides in developing countries by 28,000 people. Furthermore, it is less costly to rid of pesticides than to treat pesticide-mediated mental health disorders. This ban will be essential in many Asian countries like China and India, where pesticide-assisted deaths make up 30 percent of suicides. Sri Lanka is one of the first countries to plan on banning chemical fertilizer over human health concerns and have already banned some highly toxic pesticides still of use in other nations currently. Following Sri Lanka’s pesticide ban 20 years ago, suicide rates fell 75 percent. Therefore, global leaders and health officials should follow suit and reassess pesticide toxicity classifications to curb exposure and restrict access to toxic chemicals. The study concludes, “A global strategy that reclassified all the more toxic class II agents as highly hazardous and region-wide bans would prevent most circumvention and be a highly effective means of reducing suicide rates throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”

Mental health is just as—if not more–important than physical health, and studies such as these highlight the importance of knowing pesticide implications beyond physical ailments. Through the Pesticide Induced Diseases Database (PIDD), Beyond Pesticides tracks the most recent studies related to pesticide exposure. For more information on the multiple harms of pesticide exposure, see PIDD pages on body burdens, endocrine disruption, cancer, and other diseases. Farmworkers and farmworkers’ children encounter pesticide exposure at increasingly higher levels than the general population. Thus, these groups of people also experience disproportionate effects of pesticide exposure on their health. Therefore, buying, growing, and supporting organic can help eliminate the extensive use of pesticides and protect the people who help put food on our table every day. Organic agriculture has many health and environmental benefits, which curtail the need for widespread chemical-intensive agricultural and residential practices. Given the wide availability of non-pesticidal alternative strategies, families and agro-industry workers alike can apply these methods to promote a safe and healthy environment. For more information on how organic is the right choice for both consumers and the farmworkers that grow our food, see Beyond Pesticides webpage, Health Benefits of Organic Agriculture. 

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among adults (3rd for adolescence) in the U.S., with more than 34,000 individuals take their own life every year. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors are dangerous and harmful and therefore considered a psychiatric emergency. An individual experiencing these thoughts should seek immediate assistance from a health or mental health care provider. If you or someone you know is in an emergency, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or call 911 immediately.

Help Beyond Pesticides educate and build the movement that will bring long-needed protection to humans, animals, and the entire environment by attending the National Pesticide Forum this spring. Cultivating Healthy Communities will bring together expert scientists, farmers, policymakers, and activists to discuss strategies to eliminate harms from toxic chemical use in favor of non-toxic organic solutions. It begins with a pre-conference session on Monday, May 24, and continues every Tuesday beginning May 25, June 1, June 8, and ending June 15, 2021. Registration is open today and available through the webpage on this link. It starts with US.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: University of South Australia, The Lancet

(Beyond Pesticides, May 12, 2021) Earlier this year, a team of scientists solved an ecological mystery that had persisted for decades. Throughout the southeastern United States, bald eagles and other top-level avian predators were experiencing mass deaths from a disease known as vacuolar myelinopathy (VM), a neurological ailment that causes lesions in affected animal’s brains. Scientists identified the source of the exposure as a cyanobacteria growing on an invasive weed, but up until now, did not know how the bacterium caused disease. Now, scientists have determined that the chemical bromine, likely introduced by brominated herbicides in attempts to manage the invasive species, is the trigger for the production of the cyanobacteria’s neurotoxin.

In the mid-1990s, over 70 bald eagles died in Arkansas’s DeGray Lake over the course of two years. The event was the largest mass mortality of eagles recorded. Scientists identified the disease as vacuolar myelinopathy, and through the course of several years were able to determine that the disease generally affected birds in the built environment, near artificial bodies of water with high levels of aquatic plant life. Waterfowl and other bird species were found to develop lesions in lakes where there was an ongoing VM outbreak.

Evidence built that hydrilla (Hydrilla verticullata) a common invasive submerged aquatic plant found throughout the U.S. was part of the problem. In particular, scientists were concerned with a cyanobacteria called Aetokthonos hydrillicola, found to be growing on the backside of the plant. To determine how the bacterium caused the disease, researchers cultured it in the lab (after significant trial and error), and exposed birds under controlled conditions. But they found that exposed birds did not develop the lesions characteristic of VM. Scientists subsequently considered that it may be an environmental factor resulting in the changes to the cyanobateria when submerged in water.

A. hydrillicola was then observed under an advanced imaging process, which detected the presence of metabolites containing bromine atoms. The presence of bromine was the key to the mystery – the process scientists had used to culture the bacteria in the lab did not contain bromine. When they added it to the medium, A. hydrillicola began to produce a potent neurotoxin.

Researchers have subsequently found evidence that the toxin produced by the bacteria can lodge itself in an animal’s gut, and move up the food chain. This bioaccumulation poses significant hazards– not only to birds of prey, but potentially many animals up the food chain.

Most sources of bromine in a freshwater ecosystem are likely to be added by humans. Flame retardants and other industrial compounds like coal and fracking pollution can contain bromine. But one of the most likely sources is the pesticide diquat dibromide. Pesticide products containing diquat dibromide are often applied in attempts to manage invasive hydrilla. However, the quick spreading nature the plant is almost certain to leave many behind to recolonize man-made freshwater lakes and ponds.

As the study suggests, “Benefits and risks of using any bromide-containing chemical control agents within VM reservoir watersheds need to be reassessed.” The mystery is a posterchild for how counterproductive and difficult it can be to determine non-target effects of pesticide use. Beyond Pesticides has covered a range of ways in which pesticides can cause unintended effects that spread across ecosystems with deleterious trophic cascades. The use of a bromide-based product, intended to kill a plant that harbors a bacterium that, in the presence of bromine, produces a lethal neurotoxin is far beyond the scope of any risk assessment conducted by pesticide regulatory agencies.

While it may be tempting to excuse regulators for that oversight, this is simply another instance in a long line of “big mysteries” that are ultimately linked to pesticide exposure – from pollinator declines to the death of coniferous trees throughout the U.S.

The findings highlight to importance of integrating alternative assessments into pesticide regulation. There are non-toxic, biological controls for hydrilla that are working well and do not required a brominated pesticide. Triploid sterile grass carp, which have a lower risk of escape and reproduction, are being used successfully to control hydrilla in many VM reservoirs, according to the study. When viable alternatives exist for a given use that do not necessitate the application of hazardous pesticides, an alternative assessment would reject the registrations of these risky and unnecessary products in favor of safer practices.

We can change the way toxic pesticides are allowed onto market and manage pest problems without unnecessary hazards through dedication and education. Join Beyond Pesticides for a discussion around many of these themes at the upcoming, first ever virtual National Pesticide Forum, starting May 24^th and 25^th, and running every subsequent Tuesday until June 15^th. Registration options are available for every budget. See here for a complete program and schedule of events.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Science (article), Science (peer reviewed study)